


The Past Doesn't Stay Buried

by laxit21



Series: Alias: Felicity Smoak [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Canon-Typical Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Season/Series 02 AU, Spies & Secret Agents, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-03-03 08:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 37,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13337106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laxit21/pseuds/laxit21
Summary: Someone once said there was no such thing as coincidence. Felicity wasn’t completely sure that that was true. Two years as a vigilante(or rather, vigilante adjacent) and, while Oliver’s past kept coming back, nothing from Felicity’s ever did, until now. When an old enemy’s machinations hits a little too close to home, the hacker realizes she can’t run from her past any longer. Her ghosts are coming, and Team Arrow is about to learn how much they don’t know about Felicity.You can find me on Tumblr at: laxit21.tumblr.com





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Ok, this is gonna go very AU very fast. For now, assume everything in Seasons 1 and 2 happened like on the show with the exception of 3 scenes:  
> 1)When Sara, Oliver and John were discussing scars, Felicity didn’t say anything.  
> 2)Felicity was already hidden at the Queen Mansion when Sara showed up with Nyssa  
> 3)Sara went with Oliver, John and Felicity to imprison Slade on Lian Yu.
> 
> "Words"  
>  _Thoughts_

Felicity breathed out a sigh of relief as she, John, Oliver and Sara got back to the Arrow Cave. “I’m so glad that’s over with. I’m gonna sleep for like a year.”

“Wouldn’t that be a coma?” Sara deadpanned.

“It’s been a long week.” The hacker shot back.

It had been a long year. First, she had to drag Oliver home from his self-imposed exile on Lian Yu. Then, they had to prevent a hostile takeover by Isabel. Moira Queen went on trial, got acquitted and was then killed. On top of that, Slade Wilson and his psychotic Mirakuru plot had ravaged the city only two days earlier. The group had just returned from taking Slade to his new prison. Still, his siege on the city had resulted in many deaths and a lot of damage. At this point, Felicity was sure Starling was built on a Hellmouth, or maybe it was just cursed. Either way, the only place worse than Starling, statistically, was Gotham.

“Well, I’d love to join in on your year-long nap,  but I gotta go.” Sara said. “I have a debt to repay.”

“Sara, you can’t just-“ Oliver started to say.

“Ollie, I gave my word to the League.  And even if I didn’t go back, they’d find me. The sooner I return to Nanda Parbat, the sooner the debt is paid.”

“I don’t like this.” Oliver said stubbornly.

“You don’t have to. I’m an adult Ollie, I made the deal with Ra’s and I’ll fulfill my part of it.” Sara insisted.

“You shouldn’t ha-“

“Oliver, go over there.” Felicity said pointing to the other side of the lair.

“Felicity.”

“Just go, please, for a second.” She asked nicely. Oliver grumbled but complied. Felicity turned to face Sara. “Sorry, I figured you might want a break from all of that….that.”

“It’s all good. I take it you have something to say.”

“Yeah, I….I don’t want you to go either, but I know I can’t talk you out of it. You shouldn’t have to leave. I think it’s really unfair that you had to give up your freedom from the League to stop Slade and the rest of us-you know, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.” Felicity said before pausing. She walked over to her computer station and grabbed something, pressing it into Sara’s hand. “If you’re ever around, or if you ever need help, use this. It’s untraceable, almost indestructible and I was able to boost the battery life.”

Sara looked down at the burner phone in her hand and back up at the blonde. “Why?”

“Let’s just say, I’ve been in a similar situation.” Felicity said evasively.

“Does this have anything to do with that scar you won’t talk about?”

_Ha, you think it’s just the one. If you only knew._

Felicity didn’t answer. Instead, she pulled Sara in for a hug and said, “I’m gonna miss you.”

Sara said a quick goodbye to John before tensely saying farewell to Oliver. Leaving the foundry, she headed to the docks where she was meeting Nyssa and seeing her father and Laurel to say goodbye. Laurel tried to talk her out of leaving; Quentin did not. He hated the idea of Sara returning to the League, but knew he couldn’t stop it from happening. After some arguing and tears on the part of all three Lances, Sara, Nyssa and the League members began their journey back to Nanda Parbat.

Felicity thought about several different things as she drove home that night. _I hope Slade was the last surprise resurrection we ever have to deal with. Can people stop coming back from the dead already? I mean, why is it always Oliver, Mr. I-Can’t-Talk-About-the-Past’s, ghosts that show up here just to be annoying…Wait, Digg’s past came back in the form of Lyla and his brother’s killer. Also, the whole suicide squad thing. Oliver’s past came back with Slade and Sara. Does that mean I’m next. God, I hope not. Pretty sure only like three people in the whole state would survive that._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said it was going very AU very fast. Like, the end of this chapter starts where it goes AU.

**ARGUS Base-One day later**

Amanda Waller was beginning to regret not bombing Starling before Olvier had the chance to stop Slade. It wasn’t that she wanted any of the 500,000+ people to die, it was that her response to Deathstroke left her methods exposed to questions. Waller really hated questions, unless she was the one asking. As she tried to get out from under the mountain of paperwork the last three days generated, an alarm inside the base began going off.

Rolling her eyes, she left her office and headed to the Situation Room where the noise was coming from.

“What?” She barked at the terrified analyst who’s computer had locked down and began sounding the alarm.

“I….I’m not sure. Ma’am.” The man said nervously. “I was reviewing the results from the evidence found at the warehouse where Deathstroke was apprehended. I went to look at the results from the blood samples and then the system shut me out.”

Waller exhaled in annoyance before taking a step closer to the computer and looking at the locked screen. ‘TOP SECRET! CLEARANCE CODE REQUIRED!’ kept flashing on the screen.

“You may have actually done something right, for once, Williams.” Waller said to the terrified man. She began typing her code into the console. The alarm stopped immediately and the results of the blood analysis appeared on the screen.

Blood from three different people had been found in the warehouse. One matched Slade Wilson, a second matched Cory Stevenson, an Iron Heights escapee. The last one came back with a match, but no name. The DNA was identical to DNA found during an ARGUS operation in 2006. It was the only open ARGUS case since Waller took over. The agency knew next to nothing about what happened during that case except for two things: the subject was highly dangerous and they were good at disappearing.

“Andrews!” Waller yelled and one of ARGUS’s field CSIs came into the room. “The third blood sample. How old is it?”

“I- I’m sorry- wait, what?”

“The third sample. From the warehouse. How long has it been there?” Waller said slowly like she was speaking to a child.

“Based on how many enzymes have broken down? Its hard to tell. It could be from two days ago or it could’ve been two months ago.”

“I need to know the names of everyone who was in that warehouse.”

* * *

 

**Starling City- Three months later**

The last three months had been peaceful for Starling, but busy for Team Arrow. Slade had released dozens of prisoners from Iron Heights and the police force was swamped. A newly appointed Captain Lance reached out to his friend in green to help pick up the slack. It was a busy three months, but also a relaxing three months. None of the escapees were anywhere near Slade or Malcolm’s level of intellect. The team caught most of them committing the same type of crimes they’d been sent to Iron Hieghts for in the first place.

While the team’s mission to protect the city was going well, the same couldn’t be said for relationships within the team. It turned out Oliver’s little charade of ‘Slade took the wrong woman’ was just that, a charade. Felicity was left to recover from her own dashed hopes and Oliver, well, he moved on, or moved back depending on who you asked. Oliver’s ‘little green secret’ turned out to be the last obstacle between him and Laurel. Now that she knew, and Slade wasn’t around to threaten her, they got back together.  

Most of the team didn’t care about Oliver’s love life; he was an adult. Digg was upset that Oliver had hurt Felicity, again, and seemed oblivious to it. Roy was missing Thea, so anyone being happy pissed him off. And Felicity, well, Felicity was hurt. This was the second time Oliver had leveraged her feelings to get what he wanted, and the second time she fell for it. for someone so smart, the blonde couldn’t believe she fell for that trick again.

It wasn’t Oliver and Laurel’s relationship that was the problem, it was Laurel’s belief that knowing his secret meant she was now part of the team. She wasn’t. Digg, Felicity and Roy earned their respective spots on the team; Laurel just showed up. Every team discussion apparently required her inexperienced, and mostly unnecessary, input. Anytime anyone other than Oliver made a suggestion, she immediately nitpicked or shot the idea down, even when it was the best option. Roy had almost gotten shot, and he wouldn’t been killed if Digg hadn’t saved him at the last minute, because Laurel didn’t think the team should wait three hours before busting up a drug ring. The three hours was so that Felicity could hack into security cameras and see how armed the Triad was. The Triad was very, very armed and ready for a fight.

None of the other team members could tell if Laurel kept doing that because she was trying to compensate, or because she just felt like being contrary. Either way, there wasn’t a whole lot of Team Arrow bonding anymore. Felicity, Digg and Roy still hung out, just without Laurel and Oliver. The archer was too wrapped up in the honeymoon phase of getting back together with Laurel to notice.

The good thing, in Felicity’s opinion the only good thing, was that Sara was back in town. The Canary had called Felicity from her top-secret burner phone and told her she was coming to visit. Actually, Sara said she had League of Assassins business in Starling and might need a place to crash but Felicity wasn’t focusing on the details too much.

 

Across town, Sara Lance was standing on the roof of one of the many abandoned buildings in the Glades. She’d just started catching up with Laurel, and explaining why their father didn’t know she was in town, when the attorney’s phone rang.

“The Arrow-Oliver- busted someone who tried to blow up Rockets arena. My boss wants me at the station to backstop the interrogation.” Laurel said.

“Laurel Lance, always tryong to save the world.” Sara said with a smile.

“Runs in the family.” She responed before pulling Sara in for a hug. “I love you.” She walked away.

The Canary stood overlooking the city for a little bit longer, thinking about life. She was walking away, and about to put her mask back on, when a modulated voice called out.

“Hello Sara.”

She turned towards the voice, still holding her mask in her hands. “What are you do-?” her question was cut off when an arrow was shot into her abdomen. It missed her heart but struck halfway between her lung and her bellybutton. Another arrow hit its mark in Sara’s shoulder before she spoke again. “Thea?”

When the brunette heard her name, she got a confused look on her face. She took a step forward so that she could see her target. She began blinking rapidly before shaking her head once and looking around. “How did I get-? Sara? You’re….you’re the Canary?”

“Yeah.” Sara said.

Thea then looked between the arrows in Sara’s body and the bow in her hands. “Wait, did I-?”

“Uh huh.” Sara said.

“Oh my god! We need to get you to the hospital!” Thea said freaking out.

“No! No hospital. I need you to take me to 124 Adams Boulevard. Quickly.” Sara added the last part when Thea seemed frozen.

As carefully as possible, Thea helped Sara off the roof, down the stairs and out of the building. On the street, there was a beat-up grey sedan that Sara led her towards. Thea got in and drove as fast as the speed limit would allow and the pair found themselves outside of a residential house.

“You sure this is the right address?” Thea asked incredulously.

“Yeah. Help me out.” Sara said, and Thea complied. As they knocked on the door, Sara closed her eyes and said. “Please be home, please be home, please be home.”

The front door slowly opened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first saw 3x01, I thought the fall from the building killed Sara, not the arrows so I went with that. 
> 
> As for Thea, I've changed how votura, the plant Malcolm used to control Thea, actually works. Instead of making the person completely susceptible to others' suggestions, it puts the person, in this case Thea, into a fugue state until it either wears off or the person is snapped out of it. Seeing it was Sara and hearing Sara call her name snapped Thea out of it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To everyone who's angry that Oliver and Laurel are together, give me a few more chapters before you stop reading.  
> To everyone else, Hi!

**Starling-Felicity’s house**

Felicity was trying to decompress. Another stressful night at the foundry was behind her and the blonde just needed to unwind a little before heading to bed. They stopped the new Count Vertigo, prevented Rockets arena from being blown up, and most importantly, no died. Also, there wasn’t any inter-team conflict about how to deal with the situation for once. Everybody was where they were supposed to be and did their jobs. It was a nice change of pace to say the least. Felicity was about to turn the lights out and head to bed when there was a knock at the door.

Curious, she went to the door and looked through the peephole. Two people she couldn’t really identify were standing there. The hacker almost walked away, but she heard a familiar voice repeating ‘please be home’ over and over again.

She slowly opened the door. “Sara, I-“ it was then that Felicity noticed Thea, who was carrying most of Sara’s weight. She then noticed the two arrows sticking out of Sara’s torso. “What the frack happened?”

“Hey, cutie.” Sara said weakly.

“She- I kinda- I don’t really remember.” Thea started ti say. “I shot Sara. Twice, and she insisted I bring her here. For some reason.”

“Well, hurry up and bring her inside.” Felicity stepped out of the doorway so the pair could enter. ‘Put her on the dining room table. Take off her shirt.”

The hacker walked into her living room, removed one of the cushions from her couch and pulled a large red duffle bag out. She dug through it as Thea got Sara situated.

“How long ago did this happen?”

“Fifteen minutes, half an hour maybe.” Thea answered.

“Which is it? Fifteen minutes or half an hour?” Felicity asked sharply.

“Fifteen.”

“Good.” The blonde said as she handed Thea a pair of gloves. “Please tell me you aren’t squeamish.”

“I can deal with blood just fine.”

“Good, because you’re about to see a lot of it.” Felicity said putting her gloves on.

The blonde ran into the living room and came back wheeling a cart with four drawers in it. She pulled a device about the size of a clock radio out of a drawer. She began attaching nodes from it onto Sara’s chest.

“Heart rate monitor.” She told a confused looking Thea. “Sara, how much pain are you in right now? And what’s your blood type?”

“AB positive. And it hurts like a bitch to be honest.”

“That’s good.” Felicity said distractedly as she dug through the drawers.

“How is that good?” Thea practically yelled.

“When it comes to abdominal injuries, pain is good. It means she isn’t bleeding out. She’s also a universal receiver.” Felicity said before she fist-bumped triumphantly. She was holding what looked like a tablet with a stylus attached.  “Ok, Sara, I need you to stay really still for a few seconds. Take a really deep breath and hold it.”

The blonde assassin did as she was told. Holding her breath made the injury hurt worse.

“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”

“Bad news.” Sara answered immediately.

“The arrow did a lot of muscle damage. You’re gonna be out of commission for a while.” Felicity admitted.

“And the good news?”

“It’s a flat point arrowhead, so removing it won’t be as difficult. The arrow missed almost every organ, and the one it hit was only nicked. I can fix it here.” Felicity said with a tenuous smile.

“Oh, ok.” Sara said before passing out.

“All right, now that she’s out, we can work.” The blonde said getting down to business. She turned to Thea and handed her gauze. “I’m gonna pull the arrow out. The second I do that, you need to keep pressure on the wound. Can you do that?” The brunette nodded. “On three. One, two, three.” Felicity pulled the arrow out.

* * *

 

**Starling-Hochman Hotel**

Malcolm Merlyn continued pacing the floor of the Hochman Hotel. Thea should’ve been back from killing Sara by now. Merlyn only had an hour or so before the votura he’d given Thea wore off. Votura was a rather useful plant. When properly administered, it left those who ingested it rather pliable to suggestion and orders. As long as they continued to consume the plant, they never knew what they’d been doing or who they’d been with. Malcolm had first given Thea the herb on the flight to Corto Maltese, and so far, he hadn’t been disappointed in the outcome. Until now, that is.

Malcolm’s plan hinged on Thea killing Sara and Oliver taking the blame. If Thea didn’t kill Sara, or worse, remembered killing her, his entire plan was derailed. To satiate his own paranoia, Malcolm hacked into the security cameras he’d planted in the Glades last time he was in Starling. Three were offline, and the rest didn’t show anything useful. Unless watching Roy Harper beat up a drug dealer could be considered useful. Malcolm growled in annoyance before leaving his suite to find Thea.

* * *

 

**Starling- Felicity’s house**

After roughly two hours working on Sara, Felicity sat back and sighed. “That’s the best I can do for now.”

The adrenaline Thea was feeling finally wore off and she started to break down. “I can’t believe I shot Sara. Why….why would I do that?”

“Where have you been for the last three months?” Felicity asked.

“I….I don’t know. Somewhere warm, I know that much. Malcolm, he….he took me to Corto somewhere.”

“Corto Maltese?” Felicity suggested.

“Yeah, sounds about right. Said something about how ‘they’ wouldn’t find us there. I couldn’t try to contact Ollie or Roy or anyone here. We were building a life away from Starling. Then, we came back. Because he had business to take care of...Why didn’t I know that until just now?”

“My guess? You were drugged. There’s plenty of substances out there that could make you forget. Or make you open to suggestion, such as the suggestion to kill Sara.” Felicity explained. _I have some experience with that._ “Depending on the circumstance, you wouldn’t remember until it was out of your system, or at all.”

“How does my brother’s former secretary know about stuff like that? Or how to perform life-saving medical care?”

“Yeah, Felicity.” Sara said from the table. “What’s your secret?”

“I wasn’t always your brother’s executive assistant.” Felicity answered. _And my name isn’t really Felicity Smoak._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that cliffhanger, I'm gonna go hide for a few days.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How someone else became Felicity Smoak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure when Felicity's canonical date of birth is, so I decided she was born in 1988.

**April 2007-Shanghai**

A woman, one year shy of 20, stood facing a map of the world. She needed to find somewhere to lay low, permanently.

_Well, the good news: the people trying to kill me think I’m dead. And none of the people after me know they’re after me. Bad news: that’s almost everyone I know._

She ran a hand through her newly dyed blonde hair in frustration.

_Come on, think! Where can I go? Better yet, where can’t I go?_

_I’d stand out too much in most of Africa and Asia. Staying in Asia would be asking for trouble, especially after two weeks ago. Eastern Europe is a mistake for obvious reasons. Australia? No, I don’t want to be on a plane for that long. That leaves Western Europe, and both Americas. Let’s go with North America. What should it be? Canada, the United States or Mexico?_

_I did always want to go to America. It’s a good thing I don’t have an accent._

“Crap. I need a cover.” the woman said. “A name, passport, paperwork, personality traits.”

 She left her hideout with her stolen laptop and went to an internet café. She pulled up the first website of baby names and started giving the site criteria. Female name, nothing too foreign sounding for the US or too unique. Nothing pop culture related or that became popular in recent years. She kept varying the search parameters until she found a name she liked.

_Felicity. That sounds nice, I guess. Now, a surname. Should be easy enough. Come on think Felicity, think. Nothing too common, nothing stands out more than someone obvious to blend in. Nothing too unique either and nothing that gives away the origins. It needs to sound American enough not to raise suspicison._ The woman, now known as Felicity, found a website that was apparently a reference for aspiring writers. It randomly generated names for potential characters, or in this case, fake identities.

_No. nope. Petrovich, seriously? That’s a dead giveaway….Is something burning? This whole place smells like smoke….Wait, smoke might be a good name. might need to change the spelling though. What about S-M-O-A-K?....Felicity Smoak? Sounds just about right._

_What does Felicity Smoak do, what are her interests? What job would she have? I did always love computers_ there. _And it was the skill set I excelled at the best. Should I be a computer scientist? Hacker? Teacher? What?_

Felicity did some digging, and discovered she was a little too young to already have a career in computer science. Even if she lied about her age, she couldn’t pass for much older than 22 or 23. Definitely too young to have a comprehensive work history.

_I suppose I could be a lowly undergraduate student, trying to get her Master’s degree. The Master’s would prevent anyone from looking too deeply at my past and gives me roots in the United States._

She left the café and headed back to her hideout. It took her two hours to create a solid, digital footprint and background on one Felicity Megan Smoak. A birth certificate, social security number, passport, school transcript and other paperwork took a few days to forge and get just right. The real question would how well her documents stood up to scrutiny at customs.

_In hindsight, they taught me way too much about how to disappear._

Felicity got on a plane from Hong Kong to Las Vegas. By the time she landed, she was an MIT transfer student for the 2007-2008 academic year with plans to enroll for some post-graduate studies the following year. She spent the flight figuring out her personality and habits. She needed to come up with an entire personality and commit to it and be able to sell that image to the rest of the world.

The personality she settled on was solid enough for a college student. Felicity Smoak was a bit of a geek. She liked Doctor Who and sci-fi, didn’t really like romantic comedies that much. Her biggest fear was kangaroos but she loved pandas. She didn’t speak any languages other than English and was a terrible liar.

In May 2008, Felicity Smoak graduated summa cum laude from MIT. In September 2008, ARGUS officially declared the 2006 operation a cold case. In May of 2009, she received her Master’s degree in computer science and cybersecurity. By August 2009, she’d accepted a job in Queen Consolidated’s IT department in Starling City. By January 2010, most of Felicity’s ‘old family friends’ stopped looking for her. Things in her life were safe, and boring, until October of 2012 when Oliver Queen walked into her office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this is the actual point where I'm gonna go hide for a few days.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Laurel situation gets addressed and semi-dealt with.

“I can’t stay here. I have to get back to Nanda Parbat.” Sara said, trying to stand up from her spot on the couch.

“No, you have to rest.” Felicity said pushing her down lightly. “You said the League expected you to be here for a few more days at least. that gives you a few more days to rest and heal before you need to worry.”

“Any chance I can hide out here too?” Thea said from the doorway. “Sorry, it’s just….whatever Malcolm kept giving me, it started wearing off and I’m just….there’s a lot I’m dealing with and I can’t exactly go to Ollie and if dear old psycho dad hasn’t found me by now he won’t.”

“Of course you can stay, Thea.” Felicity said. “Someone needs to keep an eye on Sara while I’m….preoccupied.”

“You mean with my brother, the Arrow. Yeah, Malcolm told me the truth at some point after I left with him.” Thea admitted. “I guess I’ve got babysitting duty. How is Ollie anyway?”

“Ok, I guess. He’s dating Laurel again.” Felicity said. The blonde honestly wasn’t sure how Oliver was doing because of the obvious tension within the team. He seemed to be fine though.

“What?” Thea yelled. “How stupid is he? Don’t get me wrong, I love Laurel, but that’s not gonna end well. It never does. Not matter how much they want it to work, Ollie and Laurel never work out. Plus, this is the second time he’s just swapped sisters. And it was the same sisters both times!” Thea exclaimed. “No offense, Sara.”

“None taken.” Sara said before adding. “I was pissed when she told me too. It’s only been a few months since we broke up and he got back together with my sister. I told him that Felicity brought out his light, and he should explore that. Did he even talk to you after I left?”

“Not really. He told me Slade took the wrong woman, just to draw Slade out. I gave him a chance on Lian Yu to take the sentiment back, to say it was just to fool Slade, and he didn’t.  I gave him another chance to say it was a charade and he still didn’t. I took that to mean he had legitimate feelings for me, or at least some feelings for me. turns out I was wrong. Again.” Felicity said shrugging. “Let’s just hope I don’t fall for that a third time.”

“How are you this calm?”

“One, I’ve had three months to deal with my feelings. Two, I can’t control the actions of other people. If they want to keep repeating the same cycle over and over again, that’s their decision. Three, Laurel dating Oliver isn’t my biggest problem right now. Or the team’s.”

_Your sister and her ‘I’m always right because I’m Laurel Lance’ mentality is._

Later that night, Felicity was in the foundry updating her systems when the rest of the team walked in. Roy and Digg immediately went over to strike up a conversation with Felicity, while Oliver went over to one of the training dummies. Laurel was nowhere to be found.

“No Laurel tonight?” Felicity asked, trying not to sound too excited.

“No, her boss is making everyone work late since they’re so swamped with the Iron Heights escapees.” Oliver answered.

“Good, then we can talk.” Digg said crossing his arms.

“About what?” Oliver asked clueless.

“How do you think we’re doing? As a team?” the former sergeant asked.

“Fine.” The emerald archer answered in confusion.

“Roy?” the younger man simply shook his head.

“We’re not fine. But you wouldn’t have noticed because you’re…..distracted.”

“Distracted by what?”

“Laurel’s presence down here. She comes in, she shoots down every suggestion people have, unless they’re you, and yet you listen to her. She’s allowed to have an opinion, but she doesn’t know what shes talking about half the time. That, I could deal with. But the fact that you continue to side with her is dangerous and it almost got Roy killed.”

“I don’t keeping taking her side.”

“Really?” John asked. “So if I suggested we run into a situation completely blind, you’d agree? Because that’s what she convinced you to do and, if Felicity hadn’t been able to warn me, Roy would’ve gotten shot in the head.”

“She’s just….feeling out of place here.” Oliver defended.

“Why is she here to begin with?” Roy asked. “You, Digg and I have training and field experience, Felicity is the only reason we know whats going on half the time. We earned our place on this team. What does Laurel do, other than argue with everyone?”

He couldn’t answer that. “Felicity?” Oliver said, finding it weird the hacker hadn’t spoken up.

“What? They’re right. You’re distracted by Laurel, you’re seemingly afraid to disagree with her and that’s hurt the whole team. She opens her mouth, you automatically agree with whatever she says and if you don’t think that’s making things tense around here, you really are an idiot. You never back us up, even if you know we’re right.” Felicity shrugged. “If anyone else said what she said or acted the way she does, you would’ve confront them months ago. But you don’t, because it’s Laurel.”

“That’s not fair.”

“No, what’s unfair is that I have a Master’s degree in computer science and my expert opinion keeps getting ignored because Laurel feels the need to say something. What’s unfair is John’s experience in combat being disregarded because Laurel thinks she knows better. What’s unfair, Oliver, is that if you keep condoning this behavior.”

“What do you mean I condone it?”

“You really haven’t noticed, have you?” Roy said. “Laurel has no respect for anyone on the team other than you. Regardless of how experienced we are or how long we’ve worked together, we all have to be wrong because she’s Laurel Freaking Lance.”

“It’s my team.”

_This is worse than talking to a drunk person. Why don’t you get the message already?!_

“So, as team leader, you need to get your head out of your ass. Stop seeing Laurel like she’s some perfect being, and grow a spine. Tell her she needs to either respect the other people on the team, a team she hasn’t earned the right to join if we’re being honest, or stay out of here.” Felicity said. “Otherwise, this ‘team’ might not be around much longer.” An alert began to sound. “There’s a robbery on 8th.”

A few hours later, patrol was done for the evening and Oliver headed to Laurel’s apartment. He’d been living with her since they’d gotten back together. He spent the ride over thinking about what the team had said earlier. He had mixed feelings about most of it.

Laurel was in the living room when he entered. She looked up from her files and said, “Hey, how was patrol?”

“Good, we stopped a robbery and caught most of the robbers.”

“I’ll try to make it tomorrow. If I had been there, you would’ve caught everyone.” She sounded rather dismissive.

_Maybe Digg might have been right. Maybe._ “How?”

“What?”

“How would you being there mean I caught everyone?” _Pretend its Roy, or Felicity or John. Forget it’s Laurel._

“Well, maybe if I was there, I could’ve suggested a plan or something. All the other ones I’ve offered have worked so far. No one else’s do.”

“Roy almost getting shot in the head counts as the plan working? The only reason he didn’t die was because of John and Felicity not following the plan to save him, not because of you.”

“How was I supposed to know the Triad was that armed? John and Felicity didn’t.”

“They didn’t know, but their plan, which you disagreed with, was to be discreet about investigating the Triad before we stormed the warehouse. And getting surveillance so we knew how prepared they were for an attack. Your plan was to just storm the warehouse.”

“You still went with my plan.”

“I shouldn’t have. They were right.” Oliver said. “Your plan wasn’t just bad, it was almost fatal.”

“They were right one time. What do they know?” Laurel said defensively.

“Well, John’s a combat veteran, Felicity has two Master’s degrees and both have been working with me for almost two years. I’d say they know a lot.” Oliver answered. “I don’t want you down in the foundry for a while.”

“What? Why not?”

“You don’t know how the team functions and you haven’t tried to figure it out. Its not fair to the people I’m in the field with if I’m compromised.”

“Fine. Then get your stuff and get out.” Laurel responded.

Oliver packed his things, called John and left. Digg was more than willing to let Oliver crash on his couch for the night. Strangely, as the archer left Laurel’s place, he felt less troubled.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurel and Oliver talk, it's not productive. Lyla chases a ghost. Sara confronts Felicity. Someone outside Starling gets good news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm on tumblr now. The URL is the same as my name on here. So, if you're on tumblr, and you wanna yell at me on two platforms, you can!

**Starling City**

The next few days flew by for Team Arrow. Laurel hadn’t come back to the lair, criminals were surprisingly quiet and patrols had become relatively routine. No one asked about Laurel’s absence. Either they broke up or they didn’t, either way there was a lot less tension on the team.

Felicity’s personal life had also calmed down. Thea and Sara were still holed up at her house but no assassins or evil, mass-murdering fathers had shown up on her doorstep. Sara was healing, but she needed another week or two before she could vanish again.

Three days after kicking him out, Laurel called Oliver wanting to talk. The man didn’t want to agree to meet her but felt like he had to. They met at Table Salt for lunch one afternoon.

“I missed you.” Laurel said upon sitting down. “And I forgive you.”

“Forgive me for what?”

“Our fight a few days ago, when you basically kicked me off the team. I forgive you. I’ll see you there later.”

“I didn’t come here to apologize. And no, you won’t see me because you’re not going to the foundry anymore.” Oliver explained. _You aren’t on the team, you just kept showing up._

“Yes, I am.” She insisted.

“No. The access code was changed anyway.”

Laurel got an angry look on her face. _You don’t get to shut me out of this. You just don’t want me there so you can make goo-goo eyes at your damn secretary. I’m not letting that happen._ “Then give me the new one. I’m still on the team, unless-“

“Unless what?” _Please, Laurel, do not pull the ‘I’ll go to the police and tell them everything’ card. It’s beneath you._

“Unless you want to break up.”

“I don’t know what I want right now.”

“Well then, I guess its over Oliver.” She said as she stood.  _You will pay for this._  

* * *

 

Across town, Digg had returned from an emergency diaper run to find Lyla pouring over paperwork in his apartment and muttering. Putting his bags down, he made his way over to her to see what she was so engrossed in.

“What’s all this?”

“ARGUS case from 2006. I don’t know how or why, but Waller must’ve found new evidence or something. Ever since Deathstroke was ‘handled’, she’s been obsessed with closing it.” Lyla said not looking up. “She’s got me chasing ghosts.”

“Why’s Waller care about an 8-year-old cold case?”

“Because its’ her only cold case. Every ARGUS case since she took over has been closed, except this one. it’s her white whale.” Lyla said.

“What was the case? A new set of eyes might help.”

“It was more of an op. Anyway, it was in Croatia. A number of foreign agents had been killed. All by the same person. All of them were from Russia, Ukraine or some other former Soviet country. An ARGUS agent living there reported the deaths to Waller, who decided their killer might be a potential asset. She sent a team to recruit them. They didn’t come back. The only piece of evidence Waller ever managed to find, the only proof the killer had even been there, was a tiny pool of blood found in a condemned apartment building where Waller found her team.”

“Ok. That doesn’t explain why Waller is suddenly interested.”

“She’s keeping tight-lipped about why she reopened the case. My guess would be she found evidence at a different scene or something. Another blood sample maybe.”

“So, there’s a guy out there, somewhere, who dislikes both ARGUS agents and Eastern European spies enough to kill them. And Amanda Waller wants you to find him.” Digg summarized.

“We don’t even know if it’s a man. The sample in Dubrovnik was too degraded by the time ARGUS arrived. Whatever made her reopen the case didn’t clear that question up either.”  Lyla said sighing. “So here I am, pouring over miniscule evidence and Agent Miller’s, aka Joso Miletic’s, reports on the bodies he found. Neither of which are helpful, since Miller was an analyst, not a field operative. I don’t have a name, or a physical description. We don’t even know the person’s age. Pretty much every adult I know, except Felicity and like two others, could be who we’re looking for.”

* * *

 

Sara sat on Felicity’s couch and watched the blonde as she worked. Felicity had mentioned a project she was working on for a friend an hour earlier and had been staring at her computer ever since. Thea was in the guest room taking a nap.

“Ok, I didn’t want to push, but the curiosity is killing me.” Sara said. “You weren’t always Felicity Smoak, MIT computer genius, were you?”

“What makes you say that?” Felicity asked closing her laptop.

“There’s the scar on your back, I saw it when I stitched up the bullet wound from the Clock King. The only way that scar would look like that was if you were stabbed with a sword or some other type of blade. While I’ve been sitting here, I’ve found four places weapons are hidden. Yesterday when you were checking my wound, your shirt slid up slightly and I saw a few bullet wounds and a knife wound on your torso. You have calluses on your hands consistent with either sword training, firearms training or both. You know enough about drugs to figure out what happened with Thea. You know how to perform medical care beyond what first aid or even two years with Ollie could teach you. Even though an MIT grad could make a burner phone untraceable, you wouldn’t have had time to do that for me before I left. Which means you had it programed before you knew I would need it.” Sara explained. “Then there’s the behavior. You were a little too calm when you found out about the League. You don’t talk about your past, and the few times you do, you tell anecdotes that don’t give away any real information. If you can’t see the exits in a given building or room, your body language changed slightly and you’re more on edge. Whenever you had to be somewhere as Ollie’s EA, you made sure never to be photographed head on unless you were in the background.” She continued. “You were in the League, weren’t you?”

“No, I’ve never been a member of the League of Assassins, but we’ve crossed paths.”  _Technically true, though a bit of an understatement._

“So what is it? ARGUS? CIA? FBI? Witness Protection?”

“No, worse. My name isn’t Felicity Smoak, which you already guessed. I wasn’t born in the US, I did go to MIT but that was a tactical move, a Master’s degree prevented most employers from looking too deeply into my earlier years.”

“If you aren’t from the US, why don’t you have some sort of accent?”

“Because, my training got rid of it.”

* * *

 

**Eastern Europe**

“Commander!” a man exclaimed when he entered his superior’s office.

“What is it?”

“Our source, the one we placed at ARGUS. He has made contact.”

The Commander put his paperwork down and turned to face the man. “And?”

“They found blood sample in Starling City. It matches to blood found in Dubrovnik in 2006.” He didn’t need to ask for further clarification. There was only one person in Dubrovnik during that time that his organization was interested in: the girl his men were chasing, the one who brought ARGUS into the city. Her trail had gone cold less than a year later. She was valuable, and for professional reasons, the commander needed to find her before ARGUS or some other agency did.

“So, she is in Starling City?”

“She was, in the very least.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara gets some more information out of Felicity, Felicity does Thea a favor and the mysterious commander prepares his men.

**Starling**

“What do you mean ‘your training got rid of’ your accent?” Sara asked. “Everyone has an accent of some kind. You can put on a fake accent, you can lose an accent and develop another one, but you can’t train yourself not to have one. And what training anyway?”

Felicity sighed and stood up. She started to pace. “The place I came from, where I was raised, they taught me how to do different accents. When I was unable to maintain the accent, they didn’t react positively.” _Beat the crap out of me for my failure is a more accurate description._ “Anyway, I learned how to sound like an American. I can also do accents for most of western Europe and Australia. They also taught me how to fight.”

“And the League?”

“I encountered the League, briefly, after I cut ties with the people who trained me.” _‘Cut ties’ makes it sound way more civil than it was._ "I haven't been involved with anything to do with the League for years."

“And the people who trained you just let you go?”

“No, I escaped.” _They made a lot of mistakes that day._ “In addition to accents and weaponry, they taught me how to disappear. Every time they found me, I managed to escape and avoid being taken back. Some less-than-fun things happened and I convinced almost everyone I was dead, became Felicity Smoak and came to America.”

“But you didn’t convince everyone you were dead? You said ‘almost everyone’.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how many people found out about my escape. The people who trained me knew, obviously, but they might’ve reached out to others to find me. I doubt those others even know what I look like, but still. I played it safe and tried to avoid an interesting life when I came to the US.”

“Yet, you joined Ollie’s crusade. Why?”

“That’s a long story, but let’s just say I was looking for redemption.”

Sara was going to ask for clarification when Thea walked in. “Hey, I kinda need your help.” She put her phone on speaker and played a message.

“Thea, this is your father. You were supposed to meet me at the agreed upon spot three days ago. I can only conclude you failed, ran away or have been taken. You have ten minutes to call me before I’m forced to resort to unsavory methods to find you.” Malcolm’s angry voice said.

“He left that message a minute ago.” Thea told the others.

“What do you want me to do? I can destroy the phone, make it impossible to trace, or triangulate where he is and send someone to arrest him.” Felicity said. “Which option do you want?”

“I just don’t want him to find me. If he can’t find me, he can’t drag me back with him kicking and screaming.”

“Untraceable it is.” Felicity said grabbing the phone. She began furiously typing on the device to the amazement of Thea and Sara. After roughly seven minutes, the blonde handed the phone back to her. “There. I encrypted the phone and I also changed the tracking algorithm. The signal’s gonna bounce off of a zillion cell towers so by the time he traces the call, he’ll have died of old age.”

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Thea asked.

“Europe.”

* * *

 

**Eastern Europe**

The Commander stood facing the two teams he’d compiled to find and capture their target. They were the best operatives he currently had. All from elite teams and all eager to match wits with whatever prey they were sent after.

“Gentlemen, as many of you have guessed, we have work to do. This mission will not be like any of the others you have been on. It is exponentially more dangerous and the chance for failure is astronomical.”

“Sir, with all due respect, how hard can it be to find and kill one man?” one of the soldiers spoke up. They were mostly a hit squad, their missions were pretty much always the same.

“Very. And your target is a woman. Finding the target isn’t the issue, bringing her back alive is.” The Commander answered. “And make no mistake, you must take her alive.”

“What’s so special about this bitch?” another soldier asked.

“This bitch, as you call her, was trained in this facility. Her training surpasses the training all of you have. She was one of the best operatives ever trained prior to her escape. She didn’t just escape, she vanished. She can blend in anywhere, hide in plain sight, she speaks nearly a dozen languages. She has no fingerprints, no connections keeping her anywhere and officially, she doesn’t exist. She’s a ghost. Until today, the last confirmed sighting of her was from 2006. She killed the last commander, one of the few people who could ID her. Every person who’s seen her face has died in the nine years since her escape, mostly by her hand.” The commander barked out. He’d sent, and lost, most of his top agents after her. “That’s what so special about her.”

“What do we know?” the team leader asked.

“She’s 25 or 26. All our records of her are missing. We have no pictures of her after the age of seven. No one knows what she looks like. Her birth name was Anastasia Rostova. We have no idea what name she could be using or where she might be. She’s incredibly dangerous.” The Commander’s assistant answered. “She was in Starling City three months ago.”

“Why are we finding out about this now?”

“Because we only verified that the blood they found was hers an hour ago.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out how Felicity (Anastasia) escaped the commander's organization.

**Eastern Europe-2005**

In a government base a few miles east of the Russian-Ukrainian border, a seventeen-year-old brunette girl looked down at the gun in her hand. Sergeant Vasile had handed Anastasia the weapon a few seconds earlier and instructed her to complete her firearms exercises in a bored tone. This was the first time in her memory that someone at the base had given her two magazines of ammunition for weapons training.

The base, the program, the people who ran it, they were all Anastasia, Ana to the other children, had ever known. According to the commander, each of the eighteen operatives trained by the program were born in the facility.

Eighteen children were born, eleven girls and seven boys, but Ana was one of only two left alive. Five died trying to escape the facility. Six disappeared on field missions and were found dead a month or so later. Two died of sickness or injuries they received during training. Two got into a fight shortly before Ana turned seventeen and beat one another to death. One took her own life. Now, only Ana and Samuel remained.

She was still looking at the gun when the sergeant came back into the room and barked at her to get started. He muttered insults under his breath, exasperated that an operative trained from birth to follow orders was still so insubordinate. The brunette looked between the soldier and the weapon in her hands, debating what to do.

On one hand, this life was the only life she knew. She might not like the staff here, or what they kept asking her to do, but it was what she was used to. What she, sadly, was good at. If she kept doing what they trained her to do, what they ordered her to do, things would stay the same. She wouldn’t have to interact with the outside world she’d only visited once or twice; she wouldn’t have to make any decisions on her own.

On the other hand, she’d lost a lot of things, tangible and intangible, in her time at the base. Her mother had been killed in front of her. The only friends she’d ever had were all gone. She’d never been to a real school. She didn’t get to have a normal childhood. While other children were playing with toys and doing things for fun, she was learning how to fake different accents and the best way to pickpocket someone. When normal teenagers were struggling with puberty and hormones, she was being taught how to disappear in a crowd and the best ways to kill someone. She’d seen and caused a lot of death in her short life so far. Her hands were already drenched in blood by now. She was the commander’s star pupil after all.

The more time she spent there, once her friends started dying, the more she realized she didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to be an assassin or a spy or spend the rest of her life in the top-secret base being told what to do and where to do it and who to do it to. She wanted to be free.

“Are you stupid, girl?” the sergeant yelled. “Follow my orders! Shoot the weapon!” He continued to yell, hurling insults at her as she contemplated life. Suddenly, she made a decision. Anastasia took a deep breath, held the gun up and fired.

The man didn’t have time to react. One second he was yelling, the next he’d fallen to the ground with a hole in his head. She left the shooting range. Two guards tried to stop her, the ‘program subjects’ weren’t allowed weapons outside of training rooms. The pair met the same fate as the sergeant. She made her way through the facility; every time someone tried to stop her, she shot them. She was fortunate that the commander was away that day.

She took guns off of the dead bodies as she went. Two of the five subjects who died trying to escape tried to fight their way out with only one weapon. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake. She also grabbed miscellaneous items when she found them. The sergeant’s lighter, a guard’s flask, a radio so she could hear everything, keys to one of the vehicles. She stopped by her room and grabbed the duffle bag she’d been given for assignments. Inside she had a change of clothes, a few weapons and a fake passport. She’d need another one eventually, but it would work for now.

Eventually, Ana found herself in the records room, where all the program’s information on training techniques, subjects and potential targets were held. The alarms in the facility hadn’t gone off right away, so she took advantage of the extra time. Using her computer skills, it was the skill she excelled best at, she erased every file in the computer. She grabbed her file and piled the others onto one of the tables. She doused the pile in whiskey from the stolen flask and lit it on fire.  

By this point, the guards knew what was going on and had contacted the commander. He ordered them to prevent her from leaving, but not to harm her. She was one of the few assets he had left and, according to him, her death would a ‘terrible waste of resources’. In hindsight, his orders should’ve been not to kill her, since she had no issues taking out those in her way and clearly had given escape enough thought based on how methodical her actions were.

The first real attempt to stop her happened just before she reached the main entrance to the building. She turned a corner and found half a dozen guards standing in her path.

“Put down the weapon and the bag and place your hands behind your head.” One ordered. She didn’t move. “I repeat, place the gun and the bag on the ground now.”

Still holding a gun in one hand, she slowly pulled the bag off of her shoulder and placed it on the ground. When the guards relaxed slightly, believing she was surrendering, she struck. Six men were standing in her way, nine shots rang out, and soon, six corpses fell to the floor.

With no further obstacles, she walked out of the building. She found the truck her stolen keys belonged to, put her stuff in the truck and started it. The facility was in lockdown, so the gate wouldn’t open but the truck had been modified to be able to bust through the gate. As she was about to step on the accelerator, a voice called out.

“Anastasia, stop.” Samuel yelled from across the lot.

“I can’t. I don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t live like this anymore.” She yelled back.

“They will come after you. They will send me after you, to bring you back.”

“They’ll try.” Were her final words before hitting the gas and crashing through the gate.

She drove to the nearest town and dumped the truck. She stole a car that was towards the older side, the owners were less likely to report it missing. She found a convenience store, bought red hair dye and changed out of her bloodstained clothes, leaving them in the bathroom.

As she got into her stolen car, Ana’s mind began to wander.

_Oh my god. I escaped. I actually managed to escape. What do I do now?_


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara's absence is noticed, Felicity gives more exposition and Malcolm is annoyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mentions of kidnapping and dubious consent/ no consent, and forced pregnancy

**Nanda Parbat**

Ra’s, Nyssa and other elite members of the League were having a discussion and it wasn’t going well for everyone. What should have been a relatively easy mission for an experienced assassin had become problematic.

The Demon Head had sent one of them, Kirigi, after a deserter. The deserter had received news that his elder brother had been killed while he was on a mission in a village close to his birthplace. With the man’s brother dead, his family’s position in the village was under threat unless he returned. The assassin immediately abandoned his task and traveled to his village. Kirigi had been dispatched immediately, but the man hadn’t been found yet. Needless to say, Ra’s was not pleased.

“You know where Salah went, do you not?” the demon head asked.

“Yes, my lord.”

“And you have seen him in the village, have you not?”

“I have.”

“Then why have you not brought him or his corpse to Nanda Parbat?”

“He has proven to be rather…..resourceful. I believed confronting him alone was the most discrete way to deal with this matter. Since I arrived at his village, he has not been alone for a single moment.”

“I do not recall ordering you to be discreet. It is time for us to draw him out.” Ra’s responded. “Return to the village. Make your presence known and obvious. If Salah wishes to prevent his village paying for his desertion, then he will surrender himself shortly. If he still refuses to cooperate, then you must strike on a more personal level. He cannot hide behind the villagers if there are no villagers left to hide behind.” The assassin bowed and left the room. “How have we progressed in our search for Al Sa-Her?”

“Ta-Er al Safher volunteered to investigate the rumor he was seen in Starling City. She has not made contact since informing me of her arrival.” Malaq, the assassin who oversaw the League’s communications, answered.

“So, she has been unable to reach for nearly a week and a half.” Ra’s summarized. “’Can we be certain she has not abandoned her oath again?” He asked everyone, but was mostly speaking to Nyssa.

“She’s aware of the consequences if she attempts to desert us.” Nyssa said a little defensively.

“Her behavior on recent missions did not indicate she was preparing to flee.” Sarab spoke up. “In addition, she took a minimal amount of resources when she left.” if Sara volunteered with the intent of escaping the League again, she did a poor job of planning. People on the run, especially from the League of Assassins, need more than three outfits, a few hundred dollars and two weapons.

“She intends to return then.” Ra’s conceded. “Nyssa, if she has not made contact in two days you will go to Starling City and locate her.”

* * *

 

**Starling City**

“Who trained you?” Sara asked Felicity. She’d realized by now that she needed to ask direct and exact questions to receive any answers. “What agency?”

“They began as a subdivision of the KGB. In the dying days of the Soviet Union, one department realized the new regime wouldn’t be receptive to agents who had served the old one. This meant they’d lose their authority. So, they started training new ones, younger ones who were toddlers when the Berlin Wall came down. Like me.” Felicity began to explain.

“Wait, your parents just let a shady government agency take you and turn you into a spy?”

“Oh, they didn’t take me, they took my mother. Kidnapped her right off the streets of Moscow, imprisoned her at their top-secret facility. A dozen or so other women too. Then they got them pregnant and made them carry the children to term. I was born in that facility. We, the children there, we didn’t have families or birthdays or friends, just the program and each other.” Felicity explained. “I don’t have a birth certificate or fingerprints. Officially, I don’t exist. Turning me into a spy or an assassin was easy that way. It also made my escape easier. By the time I left, only a dozen people knew I existed or what I looked like.”

“What about the rest of the government? Someone outside the program had to know something was going on. That kind of thing requires money and space and personnel.”

“They wanted deniability. Since we didn’t have anything linking us back to Russia, we’d be the perfect sleeper agents and assassins. Certain members of the government knew what the director was doing, they knew a number of children were being trained, but no one asked any questions and none of them came to visit.”

“That’s why you don’t know how many people are still after you. Because one of the dozen could’ve told everyone else who knew about the program.”

“Exactly.” Felicity said. “They- I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. Some when I was there, others after I left. That’s why I wasn’t judgmental about the League, it seemed hypocritical to me.”

 

Digg winced as Lyla hung up the phone. While he couldn’t hear the conversation she’d been having, he’d heard yelling, so it wasn’t good.

“Bad news?”

“Well, turns out no news isn’t good news in Amanda Waller’s mind. She’s unhappy we’re still at square one.” Lyla explained.

“How does she expect you to find this person-“

“Waller named him or her ‘the Russian Butcher’.”

“Catchy.” He deadpanned. “Anyway, the person could be anywhere between 18 and 60 years old, right? That’s more than half the global population. Without learning something else, race, gender, last confirmed sighting, there’s no way to narrow the search.”

“She seems to think otherwise. She probably knows I gave you the basics.” Lyla sighed. “It’s a matter of time before she drags you and Oliver into this. Felicity too.” 

* * *

 

**Corto Maltese**

Malcolm Merlyn was agitated. Thea hadn’t returned, he hadn’t managed to find her and his efforts to track her proved useless. She hadn’t been seen on camera since he sent her to kill Sara and tracking her phone was useless. One second, it showed it was in Starling, the next Gotham and a second later, Markovia.

As he paced his safehouse, he ran through all the scenarios that could be playing out. The drugs wore off, Oliver had found Thea, Sara had killed Thea in a fight, the League found Thea before she could make it back. All were possible, but he would’ve found out one way or the other. Thea’s return to Starling, if made public, would be on the news. As would her death. The League would’ve used her capture to draw him out. None of those had happened yet, so Thea must’ve run away. With help he was willing to bet.

_How many people could make Thea’s phone untraceable? Or would be willing to hide her? Oliver would hide her, but he’d need Felicity to get her off the grid._

_It seems you and I need to have a talk, Miss Smoak._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, everyone's gunning for Felicity. Who will get to her first?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Russians accidentally give ARGUS a clue, and a visitor comes looking for answers.

**Fifty Miles Outside Starling**

The hit squad was beginning to feel restless. They’d been on US soil for less than three days, but inertia was slowly driving them mad. The problems with this assignment became apparent. They had minimal info on their target, they were in a foreign country, and to top it all off, all eighteen of them were crammed into one moderately sized single family home. The organization had purchased it years earlier, when Felicity was still going by Anastasia, in case an operation called for it. It was the only safehouse they still controlled anywhere near Starling.

“This is pointless. She is long gone by now.” One of the soldiers said.

“Perhaps, but ARGUS is not. They are looking for her as well and thanks to Dimitri’s commitment, we now know everything that they know.” The commander answered. “He knows where the blood was found, which is more than any of you can say.”

Just as the unit leader was about to respond, the commander’s burner phone rang. “Yes?....Good….Do they suspect?.....Excellent.” He hung up and pointed at six people in succession. “You, you and you. Plus you three. Grab your gear and come with me. We have a last known location.” 

* * *

 

**Starling**

The group of seven snuck into the abandoned building. According to ARGUS agent Mahone, better known as Dimitri Yakolev, this building was where Anastasia Rostova’s blood had been found. It was the best starting point in tracking her. Upon arriving, the team immediately began searching every inch of the building for evidence, any kind of evidence of what had occurred.

Over an hour later, they determined the building had been wiped clean. Every speck of potential evidence had either been collected by ARGUS, lost or destroyed.

“A dead end, Sir.” One of the soldiers said.

“Indeed. It seems she is as shifty as the rumors claim.” The Commander said, slightly disappointed. “Where could she be?”

Outside of Starling, at ARGUS headquarters, someone burst into Waller’s office. “Ma’am.”

“What is it, Peterson?”

“One of the cameras we placed was tripped.” The man answered. “It was the one from the warehouse.”

Waller spun her chair around to face the man. “And?”

“About six Russians went there, looking for someone. They left empty-handed.”

“So they’re following the same trail we are, and we have a leak.”

“That’s not why I came in here. One of them said something interesting, about the person we’re looking for.”

“Get to the point. Did we get a name?”

“No, but one of them, I think he was the leader, said that ‘she was as resourceful as the rumors claim’. That’s almost an exact quote.”

“So our target is a woman. That cuts our suspect list in half. It’s still three billion people.” Waller remarked. “Keep an eye on the warehouse, find a way to keep tabs on the Russians. Doesn’t matter how you do it, the second they go anywhere, I need to know.”

* * *

 

**Arrow Cave-Next Day**

Oliver and Roy entered the Arrow cave to get ready for patrol. It had been quiet in Starling for the last few days. A few robberies and drug-related crimes here and there, but nothing catastrophic or overly concerning. They heard the door open at the top of the stairs and assumed it was either Felicity or Digg arriving for the night as well. They continued to prepare, unconcerned. Oliver only turned around when Roy looked up, gasped and dropped the arrows he was loading into his quiver. Oliver turned and saw Nyssa standing there, aiming an arrow at both of them.

“Where is Sara?”

“What are you talking about?” Roy asked.

“Don’t lie to me.” Nyssa shot back. “The Canary was seen helping the Arrow in an altercation outside Rockets arena last week. She was sent here by the League two weeks ago. Where is she?”

“I don’t know.” Oliver admitted.

“You’re going to need to do better than that, for both your sakes.” Nyssa said as she shot the arrow past Roy’s ear. “That is my first, and final, warning shot. The next one will be a lot more painful. Where is she?”

“I don’t know.” Oliver repeated.

“Hey guys, I- what’s happening?” Felicity said as she came down the stairs and saw Nyssa aiming at Oliver and Roy. “Judging by the weapon, I assume she’s another friend of yours Oliver?”

Nyssa, thankfully, picked up on the fact that Felicity was feigning ignorance and behaved accordingly. “I have better taste than that. I am Nyssa, daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, Heir to the Demon.”

“Felicity Smoak, MIT Class of 09.” Felicity responded.

“Felicity, you should go.” Oliver said, trying to get at least one person away from the angry assassin. “We need to find Sara, and your skills-“

“Aren’t very useful. Got it.” The blonde filled in. “I hope you find her.” She said in parting to Nyssa.

Suspecting there was something Felicity wasn’t saying, Nyssa let her leave and turned back to Oliver. “I will search for her. I suggest you do the same. If she is not found by dawn, this city will suffer my wrath.” Before Oliver could respond, Nyssa turned on her heel and walked out.

She found Felicity leaning against the outside of the building, waiting. “Thanks for going along with my lie.”

“It is nothing, I assume you had a sensible reason. I am confused, however. I believed you to be dead. How are you here and why does Oliver Queen believe your name to be Felicity Smoak?”

“Shanghai didn’t go as well as I hoped. I faked my death, changed my name, and appearance, enrolled at MIT and became Felicity Smoak. The rest just kinda happened.” She admitted.

“And do you know where Sara is?” Nyssa inquired.

“Of course, I do. And if you follow me, I can take you to her.” Nyssa nodded once and got into Felicity’s car. They drove in silence to the blonde’s house. When they got out, Felicity broke the silence again. “Before we go in, I need to tell you something. She came to me because she was hurt. She didn’t return because of the severity.”

Before the brunette could ask, Felicity opened the door and Nyssa saw Sara asleep on the couch. She walked over to her and ran a hand through the woman’s hair. “Beloved.”

“Hey Nyssa….wait, Nyssa?” Sara was a little groggy but soon found herself wide awake. She sat up quickly and agitated her injury. “Ow!”

“What happened?”

“She was shot with an arrow, twice.” Felicity answered. “And no, it wasn’t Oliver.”

“Who?”

“Malcolm Merlyn.” Sara said. “He brainwashed some teenager to kill me. Not sure why. Oliver’s sister found me and I convinced her to bring me here. Blondie fixed me up.”

“She’s been staying here while she heals.” Felicity cut in.

“Why did you help her?” Nyssa asked. The woman she’d met years ago, before Felicity Smoak, never would’ve done something like this. She’d heal an injured ally, sure, but she wouldn’t offer them shelter or safety.

“Sara’s my friend and she needed my help. I hoped she’d be healed a little more before the League came looking.” Felicity answered. “I also wanted to keep Sara’s presence and Thea’s involvement from Oliver and the others. It’s….above their pay grade.”

“Indeed it is. Thank you for helping her and I’m glad you are safe, beloved.” Nyssa responded. “Can she travel?”

“I want to check the wound in the morning, just to be sure. She’s gonna need some time before she can fight again though. The arrow did a bit of muscle damage.”

“That’s fair. I swore vengeance upon this city at dawn if I did not find her. It seems I spoke too soon.” Nyssa conceded. This search for Sara yielded more than one unexpected outcome. Outcomes the Demon Head would find interesting to say the least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that stuff happened.  
> Thoughts?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyssa goes home, Laurel and Malcolm plot, Waller continues to obsess and someone in Central City searches.

The next morning, after Felicity checked Sara’s injuries one more time, Sara and Nyssa left for Nanda Parbat. The League needed to learn what Sara had discovered while in Starling and their headquarters was just as suitable for her healing as Felicity’s, if not more.

Before they left, Felicity returned Sara’s burner phone to her and gave Nyssa one as well. Now that someone else from the League knew she was alive, there was no point in trying to hide that fact from Ra’s. She hadn’t parted with the League on bad terms, and they weren’t going to inform any outsiders that they had found her, especially the Russians. 

* * *

 

In her apartment, Laurel was beginning to get frantic. She promised herself she’d get even with Oliver for kicking her off the team and breaking up with her. She just couldn’t figure out how.

Going to the police would get Oliver and his team arrested, sure, but also her and her father potentially. Helping the Arrow made her an accessory at best and an accomplice at worst. It would also destroy any career goals she had. Even if she wasn’t arrested, Oliver might be able to prove Laurel knew who the Arrow was months ago and didn’t immediately turn him in. The DA’s office would then have to let her go to avoid a scandal.

He didn’t have a job, so she couldn’t get him fired. Whatever the rest of his team did to pay their bills remained a mystery to her, so she couldn’t get them fired either. She didn’t even care what happened to Digg or Roy, it was Oliver and Felicity she was really after. Too bad she didn’t have anything useful on either of them.

_I wonder what dirty little secrets Little Miss Perfect is hiding._ Laurel thought as she realized, with the right information, she could force Felicity to quit. Or leave the city entirely. 

* * *

 

John was watching his daughter Sara sleep. Lyla had been called into ARGUS for an ‘emergency meeting’ by Waller, leaving the father to keep an eye on the infant. As he looked down at the sleeping baby, he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of quiet moments like this. The peaceful moment was broken when he heard Lyla close the door of their apartment.

She crept into the nursery when she couldn’t find John and saw the baby fast asleep. Turning the baby monitor next to the crib on, she gestured for him to head into the living room.

“Meeting productive?”

“Well, our suspect list got cut in half.” Lyla remarked. “The Butcher is a woman.”

“How does she know that?”

“I was right, Waller reopened the case because she found blood at a recent crime scene. A bunch of Russians showed up at the scene yesterday looking for clues. The cameras Waller hid recorded them talking, and one of them said that ‘she was as resourceful as I thought’. They’re looking for her too, and as lost as we are.”

“That doesn’t bode well. Two agencies gunning for the same woman. Wouldn’t want to be in that crossfire.”

“Yeah.” Lyla agreed. “Especially since Waller’s kicked it up a notch. The blood was found nearby, but we didn’t have surveillance up at the time. She’s given me approval to bring outsiders into the investigation. I’m pretty sure she’s hoping I’ll ask Felicity.”

“Is she crazy? You can’t drag Felicity into something like this. She’s a hacker, not a federal agent.”

“I told you, this case is Waller’s obsession. She takes it as a personal insult that this woman’s been able to evade her for so long.” Lyla said. “Look, this is a no-win scenario. If I ask Felicity, she becomes involved. If I don’t, it’s a matter of time before Waller just conscripts her into this.” 

* * *

 

The next day, Malcolm arrived in Starling. He’d taken the least direct route possible after leaving Corto Maltese. He’d felt like he was being watched the second he’d left his safehouse there and hoped to lose whatever tail he may have had over the course of three continents, nine countries and three days of travel.

His satisfaction at losing his tail was quickly lost upon arriving in Starling. Unsurprisingly, her internet activity was nearly impossible to trace, but the issue went deeper. Felicity Smoak was not listed in the phone book. None of the usual sources he could reach out to were able to find her and, short of waiting outside Verdant and risk Oliver noticing, he had no way to track her down.

* * *

 

**Central City**

A man stood with his hands on his hips looking at the wall in front of him. To an outsider, the wall would look like something the FBI would find in a serial killer’s house. A giant map of the world with scribblings on various continents covered the wall. Red marker connected the scribblings. ‘2005-Left Russia’ was written underneath the city of Moscow. ‘2006-Dubrovnik-Sighting and confirmed kill’ and ‘2006-Mumbasa-Sighting’ were written over their respective countries. For the last seven years, the line ended at the same note: ‘2007-Shanghai-Supposed Death.’

The wall displayed more than confirmed sightings of Anastasia Rostova after her escape from the KGB program, it was what the man spent eight years working on. Eight years chasing whispers and rumors and ghosts. He’d almost given up on finding her, until about a year ago.

He’d come across some familiar coding when exploring the dark web for leads on her. He hadn’t been able to trace the code back anywhere, Anastasia was always too good to get caught, but it’s existence, and what it was used for, confirmed that she was still alive. And in the United States somewhere. The Midwest seemed the best place to settle down as he narrowed his search; Central City was pretty much equidistant between the east and west coasts.

“Where are you hiding, Ana?” the man wondered out loud. Behind him, an alert went off on his computer.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara has some explaining to do, Digg asks for a favor and Felicity gets a visitor.

**Nanda Parbat**

Ra’s was in the middle of practicing his sword fighting when Nyssa came into the room, followed by Sara Lance who was moving slower than usual.

“Ah, it appears your concern for Ta-er Al Safher was unfounded.” He said. He dismissed the others in the room.  “Explain yourself.”

“I went to Starling City as instructed. While there I found evidence that Malcolm Merlyn was still alive. I had a brief encounter with the Arrow the day before I intended to leave the city and contact the League.” Sara explained.

“Yet, you did not make contact.”

“No. Shortly after my encounter with the Arrow, I was injured. I was recuperating and neglected to speak with Malaq about what happened in a reasonable timeframe.”

“What happened?”

“Merlyn, somehow, brainwashed a young girl into trying to kill me. She was able to shoot me with two arrows before I stopped her. A….friend was able to remove the arrows and see to my injuries. According to them, I’ll be out of commission for a few more days.”

“And was this friend Oliver Queen?” the Demon Head asked.

“No, Father.” Nyssa answered for her. “He had no knowledge she was still in the city when I arrived.”

“Who then?”

“Mr. Queen and the rest of Starling City know her as Felicity Smoak, but we once knew her as Alshabh.” Nyssa answered.

“Anastasia Rostova still lives? That’s not possible. I watched her die.” Ra’s said.

“It would appear otherwise.” Nyssa responded. “I’m still unsure how you knew to go to her, beloved.”

“I didn’t know for sure, but it was worth trying. I knew she knew more than she let on. Before I returned here three months ago, she offered me her help if I ever needed it. Going to her was a long shot but it paid off.” Sara said.

“And Al Saher?”

“I saw no sign of him when I arrived. He likely left after his attempt failed.” Nyssa said. “I assume you will send another to Starling in case he reappears.” She directed at Ra’s who didn’t grace the statement with a response.

“Felicity’s keeping an eye out for him too.” Sara remarked. “She’s pretty livid after what happened.”

* * *

 

**Starling City**

Patrol had been pretty routine in the three days after Nyssa left Starling. After finding Sara, she had come to the foundry, informed Oliver she picked up on Sara’s trail and sauntered away. Oliver and Roy took Nyssa’s words at face value and didn’t ask for clarification. Maybe they were just happy she wasn’t trying to kill them; maybe they just preferred not to know.

The city was surprisingly quiet for the last week. Petty crimes were still popping up, but there was a noticeable lack of murders, and assaults, and bombings. Everyone on Team Arrow was happy about that. Non-vigilante activities were another story.

Roy and Oliver kept trying to get a hold of Thea, to no avail. Oliver was also dodging calls from Laurel, for obvious reasons. Digg was pulling daddy duty while trying to help Lyla solve her case and trying to figure out a way to keep Felicity out of Waller’s sights. He knew he could only stall for so long before Waller pulled her usual ‘abduct you to recruit you to do something for me’ shtick.

The team was wrapping up for the evening when Felicity got a text from Thea. It read ‘The house is being watched. The same car has been parked across the street all day. Driver is just sitting there.’

'Have they noticed you're in there or that the house isn't empty?'

'No.' Thea responded. 'Stayed away from windows as much as I could. Kept the lights you left lit on. Didn't turn any other lights on or off.'

“Oh frack. I gotta go.” Felicity said as she stood up from her station. She texted Thea as she prepared to leave. ‘Go into the basement, take your phone and lock the door. It has a key code and I’m the only one who can open it.’

‘Done’ was Thea’s reply.

“Everything ok?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah, I just….I didn’t realize how late it was. I’m meeting with a potential client in the morning.” As far as the team knew, Felicity had started doing freelance work after she lost her job at QC. She did pick up a project or client here and there, but not as often as she made them believe. Leaving Starling for ‘work opportunities’ gave her a good excuse to be harder to get hold of while she kept her alternate identities and hideouts up-to-date. It was also how she kept certain contingency plans in place. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait.” John called after her as she headed up the stairs.

_Oh god, what is it?_ “What’s up?”

“Lyla was kinda hoping for a favor.” He began to say. “There’s an ARGUS case she’s working on, and its going nowhere. Waller okayed bringing in outside help. She thought maybe your skills could help her find a lead or something.”

“Yeah, sure.” Felicity answered, unsure why she felt a sudden sense of foreboding. “It’s not a time sensitive thing though, is it? Like, I don’t need to solve it tonight or anything? Because I won’t lie, I’m exhausted right now and that wouldn't end well.”

“No, it can wait until tomorrow. Or the next day if you need it.”

Felicity nodded and left the foundry. When she got home, her house was empty and there were no signs of a struggle. The blonde took it to mean Thea had followed her directions and hid in the basement. The building was quiet, almost too quiet, as the blonde moved from room to room checking for signs of a break-in while also making it look like she was heading to bed. Everything looked the same as when she left earlier that day. There were still computer parts and DVDs scattered throughout the living room, and most importantly, all her weapons were still where she hid them.

Felicity could feel someone watching her the second her car turned onto her street. The feeling didn’t go away once she got inside. The blonde was pretending to be oblivious, and began organizing her DVD collection when she sensed someone behind her.

“You’re going to help me with something.” A voice said.

The blonde jumped to act surprised, and turned towards the voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who do you think it is?   
> Waller? Malcolm? The League? The Russians? The mystery man in Central City? Someone else?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity has a face-off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in my mind/this story, the closest major city to Starling in Bludhaven and Ivy Town is one of the larger suburbs on the other side of Bludhaven. So, let's say at the end of this chapter, she's roughly 2 hours away from Starling

“’You’re going to help me with something.” A voice said.

The blonde jumped to act surprised, and turned towards the voice. Malcolm Merlyn was standing behind her. He was dressed in a business suit and not his League of Assassins get-up.

“Oh I am?” He nodded. “Why would I ever help you?”

“I can be very….persuasive when I need to be. Just ask Moira Queen.” He said menacingly.

“Fine, I’ll humor you. Let’s pretend I decide to help you. What do you want?” She stood up with her back to the bookcase.

“You’re going to tell me where to find Thea.”

“I don’t know where she is. Neither does Oliver, he’s been trying to get a hold of her for months, and if she’s not answering his calls, why would she answer yours?” Her closest weapon was in the couch. She needed a reason to go over there without alerting Malcolm.

“You don’t know where she is, but you know where she was. She came to you for help. Her phone in untraceable, I’d guess that was your doing. Undo it.” He took a step towards her and she took a few steps away from the bookcase and towards the coffee table.

“One, I didn’t do anything to her phone, and I haven’t seen Thea since Mrs. Queen’s funeral. Two, even if I could undo it, I’d need the phone here to do it.” As she spoke, Felicity moved further into the middle of the room, Malcolm shadowed the movements. When she stopped moving, the coffee table sat between her and him, with her standing in front of her couch. To Malcolm, it hopefully looked like she was trying to put as much distance between them as possible.

“Don’t lie to me. She was in Starling last week, I came here with her. Thea couldn’t have disappeared without help. Oliver’s too stupid to help her with this, and she doesn’t know anyone with the right skills to fix her phone except you.”

“Well, it wasn’t me.” Felicity said forcefully.

“Fine.” Malcolm said as he placed a newer model computer onto the coffee table. “You can still find the phone. You have ten minutes.”

She took a seat on the couch and opened the laptop. “Out of curiosity, what’ll you do if I don’t?”

“Well, I could hurt you physically. Send an anonymous tip to the SCPD about where to find the Arrow, getting you arrested. My first step, though, would be to threaten your family.”

She closed the laptop, stood and picked it up. “My family?” _Wait, ‘Smoak’ is a real last name? I definitely should’ve checked that one out._

“Yes, you told Oliver your mother still lives in Las Vegas. She shouldn’t be too hard to track down.” Malcolm said.

Felicity dropped the laptop onto the coffee table and took a swing at Malcolm. He blocked it. She aimed again and he blocked again.

“So, Oliver did teach you something.” He remarked. “Too bad I beat him time and time again.” This time, Merlyn was the one on the offensive. He struck out at her, she blocked. He struck again, she let him get a hit in. “You do remember I was in the League of Assassins, right?” He taunted.

_Yeah, and I’ve still got a decade on you when it comes to this._ “Who says I learned from Oliver?”

He aimed a kick at her ribs, which she blocked with her arm. They fell into a pattern after that. Malcolm would strike, she’d block. Every few times, she’d let him get a hit in, to give him a false sense of security. Then, she’d try to hit him, and he’d block it.

“I’m getting tired of this.” Malcolm said.

“Me too.” Felicity remarked as she managed to swipe his legs out from under him. Malcom fell to his knees and Felicity slammed his head into the coffee table. The blow knocked him out.

When he came to, he was in the trunk of a car. Probably the car he’d rented under a false name. The car was moving, and Malcolm couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing. He wasn’t sure how Felicity managed to restrain his arms and legs, but whatever method she used made it impossible to Malcolm to move, much less break free of the bonds. All of his League training was for naught.

* * *

 

**Inside Felicity’s house**

Felicity starting cleaning up her living room once she had gotten Malcolm into the trunk and properly incapacitated. After she was done, and about to leave to deal with him, she walked past the door to the basement. “Frack.” _Totally forgot about Thea._

Pulling out her phone, Felicity called Thea. “Please tell me you’re still alive.” The brunette said.

“Yeah. I’m about to unlock the door. I just wanted to warn you.” Felicity then unlocked the door and let Thea out. “You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah. Did….did someone break in or something? I heard you come in, but then you were upstairs for a really long time and I heard banging and stuff.” Thea rambled.

“No, everything’s fine. I just had to check all the windows and doors. Then I had to make sure nothing had been planted before I got here. then, I had to make sure all of my incriminating Arrow stuff was hidden along with my weapons.”

“Let me guess, this is because of that top-secret stuff I overheard you telling Sara about.”

“Yup.” Felicity said, glad Thea didn’t ask any hard questions. “Relating to that top-secret stuff, there’s one thing I gotta do really quickly. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Putting our creepy stalker on every federal watchlist, I hope.”

“Something like that.” Felicity said as she walked outside.

* * *

 

**Elsewhere**

Felicity got into the car and drove out of Starling. She drove through Bludhaven and half way to Ivy Town before she stopped the car. That far from Starling seemed far enough away to do what she needed to do and not immediately bring the investigation into Starling. She found an empty and abandoned office building. Driving into the dilapidated garage, she parked the car and opened the trunk. Malcolm looked up angrily at her as she pulled him out of the car. He stood on shaky legs but still could use his arms.

“I thought the paralysis would’ve worn off by now.” She remarked. “Oh well.” She tore the duct tape off his mouth.

“What did you do to me?”

“Well, I kicked your ass. Then I knocked you out. After that I injected you with something to knock you out for a while and a tiny paralytic just in case. Oh, and I took that knife you had hidden in your jacket.” Felicity said as Malcolm began patting himself down. “Now, to business.” She pulled out a gun and aimed it at his head.

Malcolm started laughing. “You’re not gonna shoot me.”

“Oh really? What makes you say that?”

“You’re not a killer, Felicity. You’ve probably never even used that thing. Why don’t you put the gun down, you can do what I asked and we can go our separate ways?”

Even though it had been years, even though it broke the promise she made to herself, Felicity’s hands didn’t shake as she fired. The bullet hit the exact middle of his forehead. “You have no idea how wrong you are.” She took another shot at his skull. She took a few steps over to where his body fell. She shot him three times in the chest.

For a few moments, Felicity stood over Malcolm’s dead body. She knew realistically that he couldn’t survive two gunshots to the head and three shots to the chest, but mentally, she needed to wait and be sure. When he didn’t move after a solid minute, the reality of the situation came crashing down on her. She’d killed Malcolm Merlyn, the Dark Archer, the mastermind behind the Undertaking. More importantly, Thea, and her secret, was safe.

Felicity left his body in the garage. The building was so unused and out of the way that it would be days, if not weeks before anyone found it. She drove back to Starling. By the time she got back into town, the sun was just beginning to rise. She left the car in the parking lot of the Starling City train station. It could sit for a few days before anyone found its presence suspicious. Felicity took a cab home and fell into bed as the sun was rising.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I killed Malcolm. He's more useful in this story dead.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara finds out more about Felicity's 'death', Felicity and Lyla talk, and Starling City gets a visitor.

**Nanda Parbat**

“Why does everyone seem so surprised that Felicity is alive?” Sara asked Nyssa. “I knew she faked her death, but I thought the League would’ve known it was a ruse.”

“I don’t think she intended to survive.” Nyssa admitted quietly. “She was stabbed through the chest with a sword."

"So, that's where she got that scar from." Sara said in realization.

"Yes, but that is beside the point. I think, when she survived, she realized everyone, the League included, thought she was dead and decided to start over. I cannot blame her for that. I am surprised, however, that we visited the city multiple times, and worked alongside Oliver Queen, without seeing her before now.”

“Now that you know she’s alive, what’s gonna happen?”

“I am not sure.”

* * *

 

**Starling**

Late that afternoon, Felicity made her way to Diggle’s apartment. She knew she could’ve waited a few days, but she didn’t for a few reasons. She didn’t want to leave him or Lyla waiting long, the curiosity was killing her and there was no harm in at least finding out what the mysterious favor was. Plus, she thought she might need to leave Starling for a few days. On the drive over, the same sense of foreboding came over her once again.

Digg answered before she could even knock on the door. “I got your text. We finally got Sara to go to sleep. Didn’t want to risk your knocking waking her up.” He said in a quiet voice.

“Oh, no worries then. I was just gonna comment about how weird it is that you opened the door as I got here. For a second, I thought you might’ve pinged my phone or something. That’s usually my job. Not that you can’t do it- it’s just-“

“Felicity? Just stop.” Digg said and the blonde fell quiet. He ushered her inside where Lyla was waiting. “Are you sure you want to do this now? We could wait a few more days.”

“Yeah. No harm in at least finding out what this is about right?” Felicity answered. “John mentioned you were stalled on a case.”

“You could say that.” Lyla said taking charge. “This case is kinda a long story.”

“Well, start at the beginning and give me the basics.”’

“First, I need to tell you that I didn’t want to involve you. This case is Waller’s obsession which is why she’s so eager to bring you in to ‘crack it’ so to speak. The director is insulted that the target has evaded her this long.”

“Ok, so Dragon Lady kicked it up a notch. Got it. what’s the actual situation though?”

“it started in Dubrovnik in 2006.” Lyla began to say.

_Fuck. That explains the ominous feeling I got. Maybe it’s a coincidence?_

“An unknown individual, probably a Russian defector, had killed several spies from Russia and other ex-Soviet countries. Waller sent a team to recruit the killer. They were killed too.” Lyla continued. “The killer then vanished, ARGUS found one piece of evidence and the case went cold.”

_So, not a coincidence then. Wait, why’s Waller reopening this case?_ “Why are you investigating a cold case from eight years ago?”

“Because a few months ago, ARGUS found a blood sample at a crime scene. It matched the blood found in 2006.”

_I left blood behind in 2006? If they matched it, that means-Waller found it after Slade._ “So the case was reopened.” Felicity concluded.

“Yeah, and Waller wants to find the target. By any means necessary.”

_Oh, if she only knew._ “What do you know about the suspect?”

“Until a few days ago, nothing. Now, we know it’s a woman.”

“ARGUS has had evidence for eight years and didn’t know they were chasing a woman?”

“No, not until we received an anonymous tip.” Lyla answered.

_Shit. Who could that have been? How many people actually know about me? I burned all the pictures of me taken after 1995. I killed all the guards at my ‘childhood home’, and the staff. The two teams who found me in Croatia, the mercenaries in Kenya. All dead. That leaves…..the League and Samuel. Neither of those makes sense, since the League won’t tell them and Samuel can’t._

“Ok, just to play devil’s advocate here. How do you even know the blood sample belongs to your suspect? I mean, Waller’s ‘evidence’ that she killed those ARGUS agents is a blood stain. It could very easily belong to someone your suspect tried to kill back then but escaped.”

“Waller’s insistent that this woman is the culprit. Until someone proves her wrong, Waller’s hunting this woman.”

_Damn it. So making you doubt the facts didn’t work. Guess I should find out what they know._ “And she thinks I can find her, somehow?” Felicity asked. “Where was the second blood sample found?”

“I don’t know, because she won’t tell anyone.”

“Let me get this straight, Waller wants you, and by extension me, to locate a mystery woman based off of where she was eight years ago and nothing else. I’m good, but I’m not that good.” The blonde sighed. “You need to convince her to share a little more details.” _The ensuing argument is gonna buy me some time._

“I’ll try.”

“What happens when you find her?” Digg asked out of curiosity.

“Either Task Force X or death, most likely.”

“Seems excessive.” Felicity remarked. _Also, neither is going to be happening._

“She killed over a dozen people, including several ARGUS agents.”

“And then stayed off your, and probably everyone else’s, radar for almost a decade.” Felicity responded. “Maybe she just wanted to be left alone.” _Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?_ Felicity picked up her bag and stood. “Look, tell Dragon Lady I can’t do a whole lot with what you’ve told me so far. If I know where and when the second blood stain was found, I might be able to tell you more.”

“No promises.” Lyla said before thanking Felicity for coming.

* * *

 

**Starling City Outskirts**

A man sat in a mostly empty diner on the outskirts of Starling City. He was deep in thought and every few minutes, the waitress behind the counter would look over at him warily. Four days earlier, in Central City, he’d been trying to find some clue as to where Anastasia could be when an alert on his computer went off.

Three months ago, some agency called ARGUS began digging back into what happened in Croatia looking for clues. A week ago, the 2006 investigation had officially been reopened. It had taken him three days to get into ARGUS secure files and discover why the case was reopened. Ana’s blood had been found at an ARGUS crime scene in Starling City, dubbed ‘Operation Deathstroke’, back in May. After three months of hitting dead ends, the director had finally decided to bring the rest of the agency in on the case.

The same day he left Central City, a team of Russian operatives were found breaking into the same crime scene.   There was little doubt what they were looking for. The man immediately packed his bags and headed towards Starling City, Washington. He took an indirect route, unsure if he himself was being followed.

“Here’s hoping Ana doesn’t kill me the second she spots me.” Samuel Sokolov, aka Samuel Standon, said as he paid his tab and got into his car.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How the League became aware of Felicity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I've decided (because plot reasons) the League will kill people for political/ideological/etc reasons, but they also kill people who are simply too dangerous to be kept alive or have committed heinous crimes (like genocide)
> 
> Oh, and I named the secret program Felicity was in a really dumb name on purpose.

**Nanda Parbat 2005**

Ra’s al Ghul was waiting for the arrival of Al-Owal. He’d sent his most trusted soldier to Russia a few days earlier based on a rumor. Word had reached the Demon Head that Alexei Chayka, a known target of the League, had been spotted outside of Moscow.

Chayka was a rarity among League targets. He wasn’t a deserter nor was he a valuable political target the League needed to dispose of. His death sentence was his own doing. A former member of the KGB, he joined a group known only as Project Nike after the USSR dissolved. He resigned from the group in the late 90s and returned to his village in Ukraine, just a few miles west of the Russian border. For years, everything was quiet in his life. Until last year.

No one knew exactly what happened, but one day Chayka snapped. He killed every man, woman and child in his village. News of what he did reached Nanda Parbat a few months later. The slaughter of the villagers broke the League’s code and led Ra’s to declare he was too dangerous to be left alive. His trail had gone cold soon after he killed the others, and the League had been trying to find him, always one step behind, ever since.

“My liege.” Al-Owal addressed Ra’s upon entering the room.

“Did you locate Alexei Chayka?”

“I did. He’s dead. Killed by a sniper two days ago.” He answered.

“Why did you not return then?”

“The sniper struck as I approached Chayka to confront him. I believed it prudent to learn more about his killer before returning.”

“And what did you learn?” Ra’s asked.

“Chayka was not the only victim. Numerous former KGB agents, all associated with Project Nike, have been killed in the last few weeks. The weapons have varied, but all evidence indicates they have the same killer.”

“Did you locate this sniper?”

“No. The person in question killed him and vanished, leaving behind no trace. The same thing happened with the other deaths.”

“So, we have a ghost.” Ra’s remarked. “Amusing.”

* * *

 

**Nanda Parbat 2006**

“The ghost from Moscow has struck again.” Al-Owal announced as he returned from a mission in Eastern Europe. “This time in Dubrovnik.”

“And how do you know it is Alshabh?” Nyssa asked. Over the last year, the League had found many leads on the ghost. All proved to be dead ends. After the first six months of searching, Ra’s begrudgingly named the person Alshabh, claiming he or she possessed an ‘above-average’ skillset and deserved the respect of a League codename.

“The deaths were consistent with the ghost’s method. Agents or operatives from Russia or another former Soviet state. All with tenuous connections to the KGB or Project Nike. Killed using an untraceable Soviet bullet. No civilian casualties.”

“Yet, you return empty-handed.” Ra’s remarked.

“Not quite. I arrived at the location where the first victim was killed and found this on his body.” He handed a folded-up piece of paper to Ra’s. “Other victims had the same document which I disposed of.”

Ra’s unfolded the paper and began reading. “ ’Name: Anastasia Rostova. Date of Birth: March 10, 1988. Height: Approximately 1.6 meters. Eye color: unknown. Hair color: unknown. Skills: unknown. Incredibly dangerous, do not engage.Agency: Redacted Wanted: Alive.’ This was written by someone working on Project Nike. This woman is our ghost?” Al-Owal nodded.

“Why would they redact who she works for?”

“To cover their asses.  They either don’t know or she defected from them.” Malaq said from the corner.

“Either way. Keep an eye on similar deaths and locations of known Project Nike members.” Ra’s said. “Perhaps we can beat her to her next target.” 

* * *

 

**Mombasa 2006**

Anastasia sighed in relief as she made it back to her hotel. She’d finally killed the program director. There were still a handful of people who knew she existed, but the director and the instructors were always her biggest threat. They’d spent years learning her strengths and weaknesses and how to exploit them. The director was the last of her teachers to die. Now, only the run-of-the-mill guards remained to hunt her down, many of which were too incompetent to be much of a threat. Samuel was another story, but without the director her pursuers didn't really have a chance.

A year and a half of leading him on a wild goose chase had led up to this. It seemed everyone had forgotten how well she knew the program and the people in it. After a certain point, if an asset didn’t return, a guard was sent to retrieve them. If the guard was unsuccessful or never returned, they sent an operative. If the operative failed, they sent a team. If the team failed, either the director or another authority figure came to try and coerce the subject into returning. All Ana had to do was wait for them to get desperate enough to send the director. Which they finally did. In hindsight, killing the man who stole her childhood and turned her into a weapon wasn’t as satisfying as she hoped it would be.

When Ana entered her hotel room, she sensed someone had been inside. Upon closing the door, she knew there were at least two others hiding in the room.

“Are you here to kill me?” She asked, still facing the door.

“That depends on you.” An unfamiliar male voice said. “Anastasia.”

“If it’s up to me, then I’d prefer if you didn’t.” She turned to face him and saw a middle-aged man who looked Middle Eastern standing there. Behind him was a younger brunette woman and an Asian man who was around 30. “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“An associate of mine. My name is Ra’s al Ghul. I am the leader of an organization known as the League of Assassins.”

“Ok. Well, it was nice to meet you, but-“ she opened the door to gesture for them to leave.

“I’m afraid our business is not concluded.”

She closed the door. “Fine. What’s this about?”

“The people you’ve killed.”

“Don’t say it like that. You make it sound like they’re innocent victims, when they’re the farthest thing from it.” Ana said. “Yes, I killed them. No, I don’t feel bad about it. If that opinion makes you want to kill me, fine.”

“I never claimed they were innocent. I merely wish to learn why you target members of Project Nike.”

“Is that the official name? Good to know, I was just calling it Department Asshole. How much do you know about it?”

“It was a Soviet era program, training children from a young age to be the perfect sleeper agents and assassins.”

“Not from a young age, from birth. I was one of them, I was born in their custody. I escaped last year. Only one other subject is still alive.” She explained. “They killed my mother, killed most of my friends. I was five the first time a friend of mine died. Only two of the eighteen children they ‘raised’ made it past seventeen. I didn’t want to be what they wanted. I just wanted to live, to decide things for myself for once. So I escaped, and they followed me. I killed the people sent to bring me back. I just wanted to be left alone.” 

“An understandable desire. What will you do now?”

“Not really sure. There’s a few loose ends I need to tie up. Maybe then I’ll start over somewhere new.” Ana answered. “Then again, if you kill me now, that kinda makes my plans moot.”

“I have no intention of killing you.”

“You don’t?” Ana and the brunette woman both asked.

“No. I merely wished to know your motivation. Your crusade does not violate the League’s code, nor does it put you in direct conflict with us.” Ra’s explained. “I would offer to let you join us, but I feel my proposal would be rejected.”

“Yeah. I appreciate the gesture, but I’ve still got work to do.” Ra’s nodded and he and the others left.

* * *

 

**Tokyo 2007**

Ana breathed a sigh of relief as the last HIVE agent fell to the ground. Fighting these people had gotten boring after the first five minutes.

“Well, that was invigorating.” Nyssa said from next to her.

“It was annoying and tedious, you mean.”

“Fighting is never tedious.” She argued.

“It is when it’s a few dozen people, all with the same three moves they use in the exact same order.”

“In either case, the League thanks you for your assistance.” Nyssa said formally. “We could not have located their headquarters without it.”

“Well, according to you these people wanna blow up the world. And I like being alive so it wasn’t much of a choice to make.”

“Still, your anonymity is blown and you will have to relocate. I apologize for that.”

“It’s nothing. Maybe I’ll go to Shanghai or something.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity buys herself sometime, Ra's contemplates and Team Arrow gets a surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the purposes of this story, let's say Starling is in Washington state and Havenrock is somewhere in the northeast United States, in like Vermont or New Hampshire.

**Starling**

Sam smiled as he looked up from his computer. The Starling Police Department had surprisingly bad cyber security for a city that had been under attack twice in as many years. Either that, or Ana was just that good at hacking secure firewalls. Then again, he was a little biased.

After some digging through their open cases, Sam managed to copy or read every file relating to the Arrow. Analyzing 911 dispatch logs and reported sightings of the vigilante, Sam was able to figure out the general area where he was most seen. When he found Ana’s code last year, it was related to an arrest by the Arrow. By the time he found it though, she could’ve already been in the wind. When ARGUS found her blood in Starling, however, he believed she hadn’t passed through Starling, but was in fact living there. 

* * *

  **Nanda Parbat**

Ra’s sat in his chambers in contemplation. News of Alshabh’s survival changed things for the League. Her failure to inform anyone of her survival could mean one of two things. Either she used it as a chance to ‘get out’ of the life of an assassin altogether or she believed her survival broke her agreement with Ra’s. He needed to know more before deciding what to do.

Her involvement with Ta-Er al Safher’s search for Malcolm Merlyn further complicated things. The Demon Head couldn’t be positive that Anastasia, or Felicity as she was now known, hadn’t informed the Arrow and others in Starling City of the League’s intent after Nyssa and Sara left. The last thing the League needed was a member of Team Arrow getting in their way. Or worse, trying to save Malcolm from his fate.

“Now that we know of Alshabh’s survival, what will you do?’ Nyssa asked Ra’s upon entering the room.

“Observe. Ta-Er al Safher and Sarab are returning to Starling as we speak. If word reaches the wrong people of her survival, she will not be the only one impacted.”

* * *

  **Starling**

After leaving Digg’s apartment, Felicity rushed home. She only had a few hours to begin laying down a false trail for ARGUS. Whether ARGUS had correct intel or not, she needed to distract them for a few days to give herself some breathing room.

Thankfully, immediately after taking care of Deathstroke, Felicity had erased all surveillance footage anywhere near the warehouse for two weeks leading up to the siege. She didn’t want to risk some hacker, or worse a reporter, getting ahold of footage featuring her and putting it online. If anyone from before Shanghai saw it, a lot of trouble was coming to Starling.

Felicity’s fake trail started with a stolen car. In the chaos of Slade’s attack, quite a few cars were stolen. Most were found by the SCPD a few days later, but four or five were found outside of Starling. One car in particular had been found in Havenrock a few weeks ago. The car had been stripped completely and set on fire. Havenrock PD hadn’t been able to find a single print inside the car. Some blood was found, but the lab ‘accidentally’ ordered the sample destroyed.

From there, she could’ve gone to Canada or taken a plane abroad. Looking into the lives of everyone caught on CCTV at the airport and Canadian border would take ARGUS a few days at least. Long enough for Felicity to come up with a better plan, tell Team Arrow possibly, and plant evidence somewhere else.

That night, in the foundry, Oliver and Roy both noticed things seemed off with Digg and Felicity. They weren’t mad at each other, but the two archers could tell there was something they werent saying. After the team returned from patrol, Oliver tried to approached the situation tactfully, but failed.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on with you?”

“What do you mean?” Felicity asked.

“You’re acting weird, Felicity. Jumpier than usual. And when we came in, you and John were off in the corner whispering and you stopped the second I walked over. What’s going on?”

“I, uh, I need to go away for a few days and I didn’t quite know how to tell you.”

“Everything ok?”

“I think so, I just- something happened with my mom this morning. She, uh, I need to visit her.” _Why is lying to Oliver so difficult all of a sudden?_

“Of course. Take all the time you need.” Oliver reassured her. Roy and Digg nodded and wished her a safe trip. The blonde gave a small smile and left.

Oliver then noticed Digg had a worried look on his face. “You okay?”

“Just worried about Felicity.”

“She’s just visiting her mother, I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Roy said. Digg didn’t look convinced. “Do you know something?”

“Does it have to do with you two whispering?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah. Waller….she reopened this old cold case and assigned it to Lyla.”

“ARGUS doesn’t have cold cases.”

“Well, they have one. Waller assigned it to Lyla and Lyla asked Felicity for help.”

“Lyla dragged Felicity into ARGUS business? Why the hell did you let her do that?”

“First of all, I don’t let Lyla do anything. Second, I’m just as pissed as you are. Third, Waller’s obsessed with the case and wanted Felicity involved. Lyla was trying to get to Felicity before Waller could do what she usually does and just force her to help.” John defended. “Anyway, I think the details of the case kinda freaked Felicity out a little bit. She’s been weird ever since Lyla brought her up to speed.”

No one knew how to respond, and Digg hadn’t elaborated on the case, so Team Arrow left.

Two nights later, after Digg and Roy had switched off on running the comms, the team was packing up when they were interrupted.

“Fascinating.” A male voice said. “Oliver Queen is the Arrow. Can’t say I predicted that one.”

Someone was in the foundry.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team deals with an intruder and Felicity is reunited with someone.

“Fascinating.” A male voice said. “Oliver Queen is the Arrow. Can’t say I predicted that one.” The three men turned at once and saw a brunette man around 25 years old holding his arms up in surrender. Digg aimed a gun at him.

Oliver nocked an arrow. “Who sent you?”

“No one sent me.” He answered. “But if you don’t get that arrow out of my face, you aren’t gonna like what happens.”

Oliver put his bow down, but took a swing at the man a second later. They fought one-on-one for several moments, giving Digg time to get behind their intruder and knock him out with a sedative.

When Sam woke up, he was in a cell in the middle of the Arrow’s lair. He sat up and saw Roy, Oliver and Digg standing there staring at him. “I guess I could’ve handled that better.”

“Who are you?” Oliver growled.

“My name isn’t important. I’m not here to turn you in or threaten you. I didn’t even come to see you.”

“Then who are you here for?” Oliver asked.

“I need to talk to whoever normally does your computers. They clearly haven’t been here for the last few days.”

“Why?”

“I’m looking for someone very important to me. I need to find her before someone worse does. Your tech person is the only lead I have.” He said honestly. The best lies have to have a little bit of truth.

“What do you mean, someone worse?”

“The woman I’m looking for, Anastasia, she’s been in hiding for quite a while. Someone’s started looking for her again.” He said. “I owe this woman a debt and the only thing I can do is try to warn her before they track her down.”

“I’ll contact my tech person on one condition. We look into you too. What’s your name?” Oliver said.

“Samuel Standon. From Central City.”

“I’ll pass it along. You’re staying in there until I get the all clear.” Oliver said before walking away.

“How’d you even get in here?” Roy asked, still unsure how Sam got into the foundry.

“Staked out at the top of the stairs and watched you punch in the security code. This place is ‘under construction’ so none of you bothered to try and act secretive.”

* * *

 

**Paris**

“Oliver, I’m kinda in the middle of something.” Felicity said as a greeting. “I’ll call you back.”

“No, wait, I need-“

Felicity hung up the phone and looked down at the man she had tied to a chair.  Without warning, she tore the duct tape off his mouth.

“Why are you doing this?” Ethan Driot asked Felicity.

“I think you know why.” Felicity said calmly.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong? They were kids! The oldest one was what, 12 years old? You can’t sit there and claim to be innocent.” Felicity replied.

“They wanted-“

Without letting him finish, Felicity pulled out a gun and shot him.

When his body slumped over, she untied him and set about creating a plausible scene. This wouldn’t mean anything if ARGUS didn’t pick up on her ‘trail’ and investigate the death. Or the one a few hours earlier. A few feet away from the body, she left an ARGUS file she’d hacked into to ensure Waller would eventually show up.

Felicity didn’t like killing, it was why she escaped Russia after all. She didn’t like doing it, but, as with Malcolm, she understood certain situations called for it. She also believed, similar to members of the League, that there are some people so dangerous or so evil that they don’t deserve to live any longer. It was the unwitting loophole in the promise she made to herself. She promised not to spill any more innocent blood. Malcolm Merlyn and two people she’d killed since arriving in Paris weren’t innocent. Merlyn was actualy the least evil of the trio.

Felicity left the building and anonymously called the police. She was packing her things to head to London when her phone rang. It was Oliver.

“Yes?”

“I know you’re visiting your mom, but we need your expertise.”

“With what?”

“We had a break-in at the foundry.”

“What? How did someone break into the foundry? I set up that security system myself. It’s hacker-proof.”

“It wasn’t hacked. He, he hid in the club and watched Roy enter the code.”

An angry ‘Hey!’ could be heard on the other end of the phone. Felicity sighed and rolled her eyes. “Ok, so someone broke in. what does he want?”

“He wants your help. He’s looking for someone and claims you’re his only lead.” Oliver explained. “He seems genuinely worried about her and didn’t threaten to call the cops when we caught him. Told him you’d need to look into him before agreeing to anything. His name’s Samuel Standon.” There was a pause and whispers could be heard on the other end of the line. “He said to tell you he isn’t the only one looking for her.”

_Weird thing to say._ “I’ll look into him. Looking for her is gonna have to wait until I get back in two days.” _I’m coming back today, but I need to gather intel._ “That’s the best I can do.” Felicity said before hanging up.

* * *

 

**Starling**

“What’s she like?” Samuel asked when Oliver hung up the phone.

“Who?”

“The woman who just hung up on you. The one you clearly have feelings for.” _Who did Ana become?_

“How do you-?”

“I know what being in love looks like.”’ Sam answered. “Does she know? I never got to tell her before….it was too late.”

“I’m sorry.”

“This will sound weird, but I’m not. I mean, she’s still alive and everything. She just made her choices and I made mine. Our paths split years ago. But here I am, still trying to save her ass.”

“Anastasia?”

“Yup. She was- god, she was amazing. Beautiful, funny, and just the right amount of take-no-crap when the situation called for it. It’s why this whole mess is happening.” Sam said wistfully. “What’s your girl like?”

“Smart, compassionate, makes me want to be a better person.”

_So Ana’s pretty much the same. Good to know._

 

Felicity came back to Starling the next day. As she was leaving the airport, she ran into Sara and another League member, who informed her that Ra’s had sent them. They didn’t tell her why. The other assassin told her that ARGUS had picked up her fake trail. She returned the favor by informing him that Malcolm Merlyn had been seen leaving Starling a few days after Sara returned to Nanda Parbat. She didn’t want Merlyn’s body found too early.

When she arrived home, she found Thea still in her house hiding from everyone. She’d told the brunette Malcolm wasn’t in Starling, but the younger girl was still reluctant to leave.

The blonde’s original plan was to return to Starling, get information on Samuel Standon and figured out his angle before officially coming back into town. That plan went out the window an hour later. She nearly dropped her computer when she found Standon’s driver’s license photo.

“Thea, get your stuff, we need to get to the foundry.” Felicity said as she pulled two knives and three guns out of their hiding places.

“I can’t. Ollie can't know I’m in town, he’s gonna be mad that-“

“He’s gonna be happy to see you. and trust me, however angry he might be at you, he’s about to be a lot angrier at me.” Felicity said.

The drive to Verdant was silent. Felicity had planned her arrival so that Oliver, Digg and Roy would already be in the lair. Overcome with dread, Felicity punched the access code in and opened the door. She and Thea walked down the stairs as quietly as possible.

“Felicity, what are you do-?”

“Hello Ana.” Samuel said from the cage he’d been locked in.

A gunshot went off.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity's got some explaining to do.

“Felicity, what are you do-?”

“Hello Ana.” Samuel said from the cage he’d been locked in.

A gunshot went off. Sam flinched as the bullet missed his left ear by mere millimeters.

“Blondie, what the hell?” Roy asked. "Why do you have a gun?"

“That was your only warning, Sam.” She said as she lowered the gun. “Why are you here? How did you find me?”

“What the fuck is going on?” Oliver yelled. “And why is she here?” he pointed at Thea.

“Calm down, I already knew your little secret.” The brunette snarked. “Felicity didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.”

“Felicity, that’s the name you chose? It’s…unexpected.”

“I’m gonna ask again before I just shoot yo-“

“No one is shooting anyone. What is going on?” Oliver yelled again.

“I lied to you. I don’t need Felicity to find Anastasia. Because she is Anastasia. Albeit a blonder version. With either worse aim or more sentimentality.”

“You’re one of the few people on Earth who knows what I’m capable of. Which mean you know that if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” Felicity shot back. “How’d you find me?”

“Found some impressive coding on the dark web recently. I’d recognize your code anywhere.” Sam answered. “It took me a little longer to trace its origin than I’d like. Oh, and then there’s this.” Sam fiddled with the lock for a moment before the door swung open. “I was locked in here because I wanted to be, Mr. Queen.”

Felicity raised the gun again. “You still didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”

“To warn you. ARGUS is after you.”

“I know that.”

“So’s the new commander.”

“That I didn’t know.” Felicity admitted. _Fantastic._

“What are you talking about? Why do you think she’s Anastasia and why would ARGUS be after her?” Oliver asked.

Sam didn’t answer right away and turned his attention to Digg. “You didn’t tell them, did you? About that case your wife, or is she your ex-wife. What exactly is the deal with you two? Anyway, you didn’t tell them about her case.”

“It wasn’t relevant. What does this have to do with Felicity?”

“You’ll see. Tell them about the case.”

“In Dubrovnik 2006, a number of Russian agents had been killed. Waller thought their killer might be a valuable asset, so she sent a team to recruit them. They were killed too. Case went cold, Waller reopened it when she found new evidence. It’s chasing a ghost, Waller doesn’t even know what this woman looks like.” Digg summarized. He then turned to Sam. “What does this have to do with Felicity? ARGUS found a lead in Havenrock-“

“A fake one, which led out of the country somewhere, I'm guessing.” He turned towards Felicity. “You always were that good.”

“Felicity?” Digg asked.

“Yes. The lead is fake. As soon as I found out ARGUS reopened the Dubrovnik case, I knew I had to send Waller on a wild goose chase.” the blonde admitted.

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m the ghost.”

It was quiet for a moment before anyone spoke. Finally Roy found his voice.

“Say that again, because I thought you just said-“

“I’m the one ARGUS and the commander Sam mentioned is looking for. I was the one who killed those people in Dubrovnik.”

“You killed those ARGUS agents?” Digg asked.

“I didn’t know they were ARGUS. I thought they were more program guards, sent to drag me back there.” Felicity admitted. She saw the look on everyone’s faces and began to explain. “I was eighteen, I was terrified, running for my life. Everyone I knew was either dead or hunting me. I didn’t want to be an assassin or a spy or whatever Waller wanted from me. I just wanted to be left alone!”

“What program?” Oliver asked. “you said you thought ARGUS was ‘more program guards’, what program?”

“Ex-KGB program. Raising spies and sleeper agents from birth. We were both born in their custody.” Sam said. “Eighteen of us were born, Ana and I are the only ones left. She escaped when we were 17.”

“I ran. I killed the people they sent after me. I lived out of a suitcase for years, until everyone thought I was dead.” Felicity said. “Gave myself a new identity, changed my appearance, went to college. I moved on, I lived a normal boring life. Then, you walked into my office, Oliver. We know what happened next. When I found out about this….I saw it as a chance for redemption. To make up for some of the bad things I’d been forced to do. Guess I can kiss that goodbye. It was nice, being Felicity Smoak.”

“What does that mean?” Thea asked.

“It means she’s leaving.” Sam answered.

“No, you’re not.” Oliver said. “We don’t….i don’t want you to leave.”

“I don’t really have a choice. What am I supposed to do, stay here and keep sending ARGUS on a wild goose chase? Ask all of you to keep this a secret?”

“Yes. You’ve kept ours. And you said ARGUS doesn’t know what their ghost looks like.”

“Neither do any of the Russians.” Sam added. “I killed Antonov after I thought you died in Shanghai. That was rude by the way, making me think you died.”

“That was kinda the point of faking my death.” Felicity pointed out. “There’s just one problem: Waller’s new evidence.”

“What is it?”

“My blood in the warehouse where Slade had me and Laurel. Waller’s probably tried to figure out who was there both before and during the siege. I erased all video in the four blocks surrounding it already, but I can’t exactly erase the other proof I was there.”

“Other proof?”

“Eyewitness accounts. At least three people other than Slade saw me there and know the building was empty for months until Slade brought us there.” Felicity answered. It was quiet for a moment.

“What are you going to do about that?” Oliver finally asked. His tone was one he’d used before, just never directed at her. It was his ‘you’re gonna suggest murder, aren’t you’ voice.

“Well, right now, nothing. My fake trail will hold ARGUS off for a few more days. I also just dropped a huge bomb on all of you, and I don’t think just glossing over it is healthy. For any of us. Call me when you’ve processed everything.” Felicity walked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the team's reactions may be a little....underwhelming. But they're in shock/denial right now. When that wears off, we're gonna see their real reactions.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Arrow makes some decisions, Sam and Felicity talk a little, and Laurel might (unfortunately) be on to something.

**Arrow Cave**

“Call me when you’ve processed everything.” Felicity said before walking out.

Oliver and Digg both moved to follow her. “You don’t wanna do that.” Sam said stepping in front of them.

“Yes, we do.”

“No, you don’t. What you want to do is go home, sleep and give her time, and yourselves time, to process.” Sam pointed out.

“Why would we need to give her time to process?”

“Were you not listening to what she said? She never wanted any of this to happen, she never wanted any of this to come out. Now that she’s told you, she can’t take any of what she said back. That’s one hell of a loss for her.”

“You don’t….you might’ve known Anastasia, but you don’t know Felicity.” Oliver said.

“Yes, I do. Anastasia, Felicity, they’re the same person. She might exaggerate certain quirks now, but they aren’t that different. At the end of the day, no matter how much she hides behind Felicity, Ana's still in there.” Sam argued. “And I’ve known her a lot longer than you.”

“Right, because you were in love with her.” Oliver rebutted.

“Yes, but this isn’t about me or you right now. It’s about Ana. She doesn’t need you demanding answers this very second. And you need to think for a minute or two about everything you just learned before you talk to her.” Sam said before leaving.

The others sat in the lair in silence for a few minutes. Oliver and Roy were still processing, Thea was wondering what really happened during the ‘break-in’ at Felicity’s and Digg was trying to decide what, if anything, to tell Lyla. They were pulled out of their stupor when Sara and a masked man were suddenly in the foundry. The Canary took one look at Oliver and spoke.

“She told you, didn’t she?”

“You knew?”

“I knew she was hiding something. I didn’t get the whole story until my last visit.” Sara admitted. “Before you start yelling, I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t my story to tell.”

“What are you doing here, Sara?” Oliver asked. “I thought you were busy with League business.”

“I am. The League of Assassins has business here in Starling.”

“You mean, finding Malcolm Merlyn.” Digg said.

“Many things in this city have caught the attention of the Demon Head.” the masked man answered. “Al Saher is merely one of them.”

Sara asked Oliver where Felicity went before he could ask any more questions. Both assassins left immediately after.

“So, Blondie’s got a past. What do we do now?”

“Roy-.”

“No, we need to decide how we deal with this. I don’t know about you, but everything we just heard doesn’t change anything for me.”

“What do you mean, how we deal with this?”

“Do we ask her for details about her past or would we rather not know? If the Russians show up, do we sit that fight out? What do we do about ARGUS? And most importantly, do we keep her secret?”

“Oh, you better be keeping it.” Thea answered. “You might be in shock, and you might feel betrayed right now. Trust me, I can relate. Ollie. Doesn’t change the fact that she’s your friend, supposedly, and she needs you to help her.”

“What’s your answer for all the other stuff?” Oliver asked, tired and annoyed.

“Those are all individual decisions. I can’t make them for you.”

“We can figure out the rest later, when she’s here and we’ve thought about it.” Digg began to say. “And ARGUS is dealt with for now.”

“Even if they weren’t, something tells me Felicity’s got a plan just in case.” Oliver said.

* * *

  **Russian Hideout**

“Any word?” the commander asked his assistant.

“None.” The man answered. “ARGUS picked up a trail leading to Canada. Yakolev is on the team working the case, but Waller and some other woman are the leads on the case. The five you sent have been in touch with him, but the trail isn’t much.”

“Has it occurred to ARGUS yet that this may be a false trail?” This game of cat and mouse was already getting old.

“False or not, ARGUS is going to follow it until they reach an end or something else comes up.”

* * *

  **Felicity’s House**

“Well, that was a shitshow.” Felicity said as she opened a bottle of wine. She poured and then drained a glass. “I mean, I can deal with the surprise, I can deal with the sense of betrayal, but it’s the hypocrisy that kills me. They’ve all killed people, not as many as me, but still. They were all adults and hadn’t been indoctrinated to think that killing was ok as long as it was for Mother Russia. If anyone gets a pass on the judgement, it should be me.”

“You of all people know that was never gonna happen.”

Felicity jumped and turned around. “What are you doing here? how’d you even know where to find me?”

“I asked Thea and she told me your address.” Sam answered calmly. “You used to drown your sorrows in vodka.”

“I used to do a lot of things. Apparently, that means I’m still doing them and I only get defined by them.” Felicity said draining the glass.

“He’s in shock, they all are.”

“That doesn’t make his stupid ‘you want to murder someone, don’t you’ voice okay to use.”

“Especially since you don’t do that anymore.” It didn’t take Sam very long looking into Felicity’s post-Shanghai life to realize why she hid so well. She stopped killing people and stopped doing anything related to covert ops or espionage.

“Well, I kinda….had to do that again. Fake trails work better when there are real bodies.” She admitted. “They were all monsters, so in my mind that’s not as bad. I mean, no one's gonna be too upset about one less child molester walking around.”

"No, they certainly wouldn't." He agreed. "I'm glad you're alive. I was pissed when I thought you died."

"Thanks? I think." Felicity answered. "You know what I've been doing since my 'death'. What've you been up to?"

* * *

  **Laurel’s Apartment**

The attorney growled in frustration. She’d spent days trying to dig up something on Felicity’s past. An angry ex, questionable friends, an unpaid traffic ticket. Anything that could knock Little Miss Perfect off her pedestal. 

_Another dead end. How is this even possible? How is it I managed to find her birth certificate and elementary school records but not a single picture of her? No embarrassing photos from middle school, no candid shots from a college party, nothing._

_It’s almost like….Felicity isn’t even her real name._


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver realizes there's some questions you shouldn't ask, Waller gets annoyed, Sara stumbles upon something and the League receives some interesting news.

**Starling City**

Felicity didn’t hear anything from most of Team Arrow at all the next day. Thea had texted her late last night saying she was staying with Oliver to catch up and discuss a few things with him. Sam ended up crashing on Felicity’s couch that night. He was gone in the morning, but his stuff was still there.

She received a neutral ‘hey’ text from Roy in the early afternoon, but otherwise she didn’t speak with anyone all day. With no word from the team telling her otherwise, Felicity went to the foundry as usual that night. She arrived to find Oliver and Digg talking. Roy was beating up one of the training dummies.

She heard Digg saying, “-17 they could confirm.” He then saw her and immediately went silent.

_Great, this is how it’s gonna be now._

“Hey….we didn’t think you’d be here.” Oliver said awkwardly.

“Well, none of you called me to say ‘hey, maybe take a night off’, so I figured you didn’t kick me off the team. And my door didn’t get kicked down by ARGUS, the cops or angry Russians, so I figured you didn’t turn me in.”

“Did you really think we’d kick you out? Or turn you in?” Roy asked.

“I have some…trust issues, ok? Believing you won’t turn me in is different from knowing you won’t.” Felicity answered as she booted up her system. “Ask it.” she said not looking up from the screen.

“Ask what?” Digg said.

“You all have your ‘I want to ask something’ faces on. Ask the question.”

“How many?” Oliver asked after a few moments of silence.

“How many, what?” _I know what you want to know, but I need to hear you ask it._

“How many people have you killed Felicity?”

_Pretty sure you don’t actually wanna know that._ “I’m not gonna answer that.” _More than all of you. Combined. I lost count after I hit the mid-fifties_ “It’s kind rude, isn’t it? Asking how many people someone has killed? I mean, I always thought so, which is why I’ve never asked either of you that question.”

“Twenty-seven including Count Vertigo.” Oliver admitted. “I counted them all after the Undertaking.”

“More than twenty-seven.” Felicity said in response. “And that’s all I’m willing to say.”

Digg and Oliver shared a look. Her answer could mean she stopped caring how many, she lost count or she knew the exact number but didn’t want to tell them.

“How does Sara know about your past?”

“She actually knows less than you guys do. She knows the basics. My name isn’t Felicity, I received training in Russia. I escaped from Russia and came to the US. I helped her out a few weeks ago and she had worked out that I was hiding a lot. I didn’t see a reason to lie.” Felicity shrugged.

“Yet, you were fine lying to us.”

“Actually, I didn’t. None of you ever asked about my past. Other than making you think my mom was still alive, I didn’t have to lie.”

“And Lyla’s case?” Digg asked. “ARGUS is headed to Paris right now. Apparently, their ghost dropped a few bodies.”

“I know. Where do you think I was when Oliver called me? First rule of going on the run, plant tracks in the wrong direction.” Felicity said.

“So, you just killed two innocent people to get the heat off of you?” Digg asked.

Felicity chuckled. “Innocent isn’t a word I’d use. When I…became Felicity Smoak, I swore not to hurt any innocent people ever again. No, I killed two known members of a pedophilia and human trafficking ring. The world’s a better place without them.”

“How can you say that? You’re the one who didn’t want me to killing anymore.” Oliver asked.

“Yes, because you were doing it indiscriminately. Anyone who was on the List was fair game to you. Murder and child-molestation are in a different category than pyramid schemes and fraud. And I didn’t want you to kill the Count, because I didn’t want to make you break your promise to Tommy. You made the choice to stop, but there are circumstances that warrant killing Oliver. And there are people who are so evil they need to die.” Felicity said. _Like Malcolm Freaking Merlyn._

The rest of the night was tense, but routine. Thea had come into the foundry about five minutes after the team left on patrol. Originally, she cited wanting to keep Felicity company as her reason for staying. When asked later by Oliver, the brunette gave him the explanation of ‘because I can’. The archer, wisely, didn’t press his luck by demanding a real answer. He knew the real fight he and Thea needed to have was still brewing. The blonde had started explaining some basic coding to Thea before everyone left. she also volunteered to give Thea some fighting lessons.

* * *

 

**Paris**

“She’s toying with us.” Waller said angrily as she looked around the latest crime scene.

The victim had been killed in the same manner as every other victim of the Russian Butcher ARGUS knew about. An untraceable Soviet bullet shot from point blank range. In addition, she’d left copies of various top-secret ARGUS files at the scene.

“How do we know this is even related to her?” Agent Mahone asked.

“Because one of the files the killer left behind was hers.” Lyla answered as she walked over. “Vic’s name is Ethan Driot. You name it, he’s been arrested for it. Authorities never had enough proof to convict him though. His ‘work associate’ was found in a dumpster two blocks over a few days ago. Neither were reported missing. And no connection to Russia.”

“Odd choice of victim.” Waller remarked.

“Maybe he’s just a random victim she found.” Mahone suggested.

“This woman doesn’t do anything randomly.”

* * *

 

**Outskirts of Ivy Town**

“Well, I guess this means our search is over.” Sara said looking down at Malcolm’s dead body.

The previous night, Felicity had called Sara. The hacker not-so-subtly hinted that Sara and Sarab should head towards Ivy Town. She said that the town, and the outskirts, were an ideal place for someone like Malcolm to hide, especially since he knew the League was in Starling looking for him.

“Not quite.” Sarab responded. “We’ve located Al Saher, yes. But we don’t know why Al Shabh killed him. The Demon Head will want to know.”

“You think Felicity did this?”

“He was shot point blank, likely with a Soviet bullet. There was no evidence left behind. And she more or less told you where to find him. The first two facts fit Al Shabh’s style. The last one indicates a desire for the body to be found. If we know he is dead, we’ll be gone before ARGUS arrives here on an anonymous tip she gives them.” He reasoned. “She’s toying with them, not the League.”

“So the question is, why not just tell us?”

* * *

 

**Nanda Parbat**

“Al Saher is dead.” Nyssa announced as she entered the room where Ra’s was mediating. “Ta-Er Al Safher and Sarab believe he was executed by Al Shabh.”

“On what grounds are they basing that belief?”

“They found his body. He was shot multiple times. They don’t know the specifics of what gun was used, but other aspects fit with her methods. She pointed them in the direction of the body. Sarab had to estimate, but he believes Merlyn was killed three days after Sara and I left Starling.” Nyssa explained.

“Yet, they do not know what happened.” Ra’s said. “I believe….a visit to Starling City is in order.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Starling City-Arrow Cave**

The next evening, Digg, Roy, Oliver and Thea arrived in the foundry to find Felicity already there. She was standing in front of one of the tables with various firearms laid out.

“Ugh. Totally should’ve cleaned these more often.” She said to herself.

“Uh, Felicity?” Oliver said, not wanting to startle the blonde while she was holding a loaded weapon. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning my guns. I don’t do it often enough.” She answered. “I mean, I keep my Glocks and Sigs in pretty good shape, but my other ones….”

“None of those are loaded, right?” he asked.

Felicity placed the weapon in her hand down on the table, took a deep sigh and turned. Even though the team knew Felicity could handle herself, Oliver kept treating her like a damsel-in-distress. “Oliver, I was learning how to shoot guns before I hit puberty. I know how gun safety works.”

“Right.”

“Sam head back to Central City?” Thea asked, wanting to get rid of the tension.

“Nope. Don’t know where he went, but then again, he kinda comes and goes as he pleases.” She answered. “It’s the upside to not officially existing.”

“I thought he was just hear to warn you.” Digg said.

“No, he just told you that so you’d feel at ease. Half of our training involved manipulating people into acting the way we need.”

“Where did you get all these guns?” Roy asked when Digg didn’t have a response for Felicity.

“Here and there. The handguns I either took when I fled Russia, stole from people after me or bought legally. The others….are a different story.”

It had become a habit, where whenever Felicity said soemthign vague like ‘it’s a different story’ or ‘it’s a long story’ everyone dropped the issue. So, of course, Roy didn’t ask any more questions.

“I know this isn’t really your role on the team, but do you wanna spar or something?” Roy asked.

“Sure, I guess.” _This isn’t gonna end well._ “As long as we just stick to hand-to-hand.” _That will end less badly._

* * *

 

**Laurel Lance’s Apartment**

Laurel was trying to locate the first ‘real’ picture of Felicity Smoak. After realizing Felicity might not be her real name, Laurel was determined to find out who she really was and what she was after.

The lawyer was deep into her Facebook stalking when her phone rang.

“Hello?”

“You’re looking into things that don’t concern you. You should stop now. While you still can.” A voice said before hanging up.

* * *

 

**Arrow Cave**

“Oh my god, Roy. Are you okay?” Felicity asked after he hit the floor with a thud. The blonde had gotten a little too intense during their sparring.

“Yup.” He groaned as he stood. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kinda miss Mirakuru-healing right now.”

“Do you wanna stop? Because we can stop, if you need to. It’s totally up to you.”

“Nope, I’m good.”

“Roy, I think you guys should stop.” Digg suggested. He’d been watching their bout very closely, and he was impressed. Felicity had gotten most of her blows in, and Roy had taken some pretty bad hits. “We still have patrol and Oliver’s starting to get moody.” The trio turned and saw Oliver in the corner, furiously sharpening his arrows. Just then, an alert on Felicity’s computer went off.

Four hours later, Roy, Digg and Oliver were returning from patrol. Felicity was walking Thea through some kickboxing moves when they arrived. About ten minutes into their post-patrol discussion, the hairs on the back of Felicity’s neck stood up.

“Someone’s here.”

“What are you-?”

“I see your supposed demise has not weakened your instincts.” A male voice said. The man had a slight accent, and only Felicity recognized the voice. “You look well for a dead woman, Anastasia.”

Everyone turned and saw five people who’d appeared out of nowhere standing in the middle of the foundry. Oliver picked up his bow and Digg pulled out a gun. Roy and Thea were unarmed, but moved between Felicity and the man who’d spoken.

“Guys, put the weapons down.” Felicity said stepping forward. “Trust me, they won’t help.”

“You should listen to her.” The man said. “Should you attempt to fight me, only embarrassment on your parts will follow.”

Oliver and Digg looked between the man and Felicity a few times before giving her matching confused expressions.

“Guys, meet Nyssa’s father. Ra’s al Ghul.” Felicity said awkwardly. She then turned to the man. “May I ask why you’re here?”

“There are a number of matters you and I must discuss. Beginning with Malcolm Merlyn.” The Demon Head said ominously.

* * *

 

**Lian Yu**

Slade Wilson sat staring at one wall of his cell. For the last few months, everyday had been exactly the same. They fed him three times a day, in between meals he either stared at the wall, threatened the ARGUS agents or slept. Occasionally, he’d replayed what happened in Starling and figure out what went wrong.

_I should’ve let Isabel kill Felicity when she wanted to. Should’ve just killed her before the kid showed up. Killed both Felicity and Laurel, really. Even if he won, he still would’ve lost. Five years of planning out the window because no one bothered to search her._

Slade was pulled out of his reverie when he heard the hatch of his prison open. Being fed were his only definite markers of time passing, so he guessed it was mid-to-late morning. He’d already had breakfast, and it was too early for it to already be lunch. Something was clearly going on. He didn’t hear any voices or gunshots, so whatever was going on wasn’t that serious.

Slade rolled his eyes. It was probably another ARGUS doctor arriving to psychoanalyze him or a new prisoner arriving. He didn’t care either way. New prisoners meant one more person he could fuck with when he was bored, and shrinks could only analyze so much when he refused to answer questions.

He went back to staring at the wall. A few moments later, the door leading to the cells was opened. An unconscious body fell through the doorway and a man stepped over it.

“Slade Wilson?” the man asked.

“Who’s asking? Not ARGUS, I’m guessing.” He responded.

“No, definitely not ARGUS.” The man replied. “You’re going to tell me about the Siege of Starling City.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ra's reveals some secrets, Waller gets a surprise and Laurel is well, Laurel.

**Starling City**

 “There are a number of matters you and I must discuss. Beginning with Malcolm Merlyn.” The Demon Head said ominously.

“Wait, hold on a second. How do you know Nyssa’s father? You didn’t even know Nyssa until like a week ago.” Oliver asked.

“Yes, I did, but since I wasn’t supposed to know her, I pretended not to. I helped her find Sara.” Felicity said. “As for Ra’s, well, I met him after Russia but before I faked my death. And, to answer the next question, I was aware of the League, but I didn’t join it.”

“None of this matters, nor does it interest me.” Ra’s interjected. “We must discuss al Saher.”

“What about Merlyn?” Digg asked.

“You seem to be confused. My business is with Al Shabh, not the rest of you.” Ra’s said gesturing to Felicity. “You killed him.”

Everyone except Felicity and the League members gasped slightly.

“Yes, I did.”

“His punishment for breaking the League’s code with the Undertaking was a League matter. You had no business interfering.”

“I didn’t intend to. When I told Nyssa I’d inform her of any sightings of him, I meant it.” Felicity said. “Then, Malcolm Merlyn broke into my home. He tried to coerce me into helping him. When that failed, he attacked me and I defended myself.”

“Yet, his body was found in Ivy Town, not in Starling City.”

“My intent was to take him to an old safehouse of mine. The drugs I used to subdue him began to wear off and I had to improvise. One thing led to another and I shot him, killing him.” she explained. “I left his body there to rot.” The others were startled by how cold and callous she sounded.

“But when you saw Ta-Er al Safher and Sarab, you did not tell them right away.”

“I wasn’t sure if they were here for Malcolm or for me. So, to test the waters, I gave them a nudge towards him. There was a more immediate threat I had to deal with anyway. After I took care of that other threat, I told them exactly where to find him.” she replied.

“That is…a satisfactory explanation. Provided Al Saher’s body tells the same story.” Ra’s said before turning away. “We will discuss our other business later. In private.”

Ra’s and the other assassins quickly left the foundry, leaving Felicity behind to be questioned by the team.

“You- you killed Malcolm?”

“Thea, I’m so so-”

“Oh, I’m not upset. Well, I’m upset I spent a week scared he was coming after me but-“

“Why was he in your house? What did he want?” Oliver asked.

“To find Thea.” Felicity answered. “Thea came to my house the same night Rockets Arena almost got blown up. I made her phone untraceable. It took him a week or so to figure out that I might’ve helped her. He wanted me to track her down, not knowing she was hiding in my house at the time. You just heard the rest.”

“So, when you spent weeks helping me try to find my sister, she was here the whole time.”

“I asked her not to.” Thea said, coming to her defense. “I was trying to figure stuff out and I wasn’t exactly ready to talk to you or Roy at the time.”

“Look, you can be mad that I hid this from you. You can be mad I killed Malcolm, even though it doesn’t make sense. But I’m not gonna apologize for respecting Thea’s decision, and I’m not gonna apologize for doing what I thought was right at the time.”

“And what is the ‘other business’ you and him need to discuss?” Oliver asked in an accusatory tone.

“Not sure.” She shrugged.  “Could be about my faked death. Could be about the Russians. Could be completely unrelated. Look, Ra’s does things in his own time. When he decides we’re gonna talk, that’s when I’ll know.”

* * *

 

**Starling City-Next Day**

Oliver was walking into Verdant when someone called out to him.

“Ollie.” Laurel said as she got out of her car and walked towards him. She'd been waiting in the lot for half an hour. After that phone call yesterday, the attorney guessed who was behind it and wanted to use it to her advantage. She doubted Oliver knew Felicity had threatened her.

“What is it Laurel?”

“I just wanted to talk.”

“About what? I thought we were done after that tantrum you threw at Table Salt.”

“Tantrum? So, I’m just supposed to be okay that my boyfriend barely wants me involved in his life. And that he’d rather have his damn secretary around to ogle at and flirt with than me?” Laurel bit out.

“I don’t wanna do this with you, right now.” Oliver said. “If you came here to rehash what happened, there’s the door.” He turned to walk away.

“Wait! There’s….there’s something you need to know.” Laurel told him. “About Felicity.”

_Does she know? How the hell did she find out? Wait. This is probably another one of her ‘you’re totally sleeping with her, aren’t you’ accusations. That got old the day after we got back together._

“What about her?”

“She threatened me yesterday.”

“Felicity did what?”

“Wait, what did I do?” Felicity said walking into the club.

* * *

 

**ARGUS Headquarters**

Amanda Waller wasn’t happy. Havenrock had given AGRUS a solid start on finding her mystery woman. Then, the trail in Canada led nowhere. Waller was about to return to Starling when Driot’s body was found in Paris. For a moment, Waller believed her prey had made a mistake, which would lead Waller directly to her. Waller arrived in Paris, only to find no real evidence and a taunt by the killer. After days of going in circles, ARGUS left France and was forced to return to the US.

“Anything new from Ms. Smoak?” she asked Lyla.

“Nope. There’s only so much she can do with the details you let me give her.” Lyla answered. “And it’s not like this woman is on the grid.”

“You’re saying she can’t help.”

“I’m saying she can’t with the few details she currently has.”

Waller was about to respond when another agent rushed into her office. “What?”

“It’s- the- we have a problem.” The agent said. “There was an incident while you were….away. Someone broke into the facility on Lian Yu.”

“What happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to circumstances(AKA life crap happening) this story is going on a short hiatus. I won't be updating until roughly 3/9.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurel tries to start a fight, Felicity reveals some stuff she didn't mean to, and ARGUS has a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felicity might seem a little too mean in this chapter, but she is very done with Laurel.

**Starling City-Arrow Cave**

There’s….there’s something you need to know.” Laurel told Oliver. “About Felicity.”

 “What about her?”

“She threatened me yesterday.”

“Felicity did what?”

“Wait, what did I do?” Felicity said walking into the club.

Laurel scoffed, crossed her arms and turned to face Felicity. “Of course you’d be here. You know exactly what you did.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Really? So when I started digging into your background, that didn’t raise a few flags or anything.”

“Why don’t we take this conversation elsewhere?” Oliver asked. He didn’t want to be overheard.

“Fine by me.” Felicity said.

“Fine.” Laurel bit out.

Oliver nodded and the three of them went down into the foundry, which was thankfully empty.

“Now, where were we?”

“I’ll tell you where. I was looking into her past. And then, out of nowhere, she called me and said I should drop it while I quote ‘still can’.” Laurel yelled.

“Why were you looking into Felicity in the first place?” Oliver asked.

“That’s not important right now.” Laurel said evasively. “What’s important is she threatened me!”

“No, I didn’t.” Felicity said. “Laurel, this is gonna sound mean. But I don’t care what you do.”

“Yes you do! Otherwise you wouldn’t have stolen Ollie from me and you wouldn’t have threatened me.”

“Ok, you’ve completely lost it.”

“Felicity-.”

By this point, Roy, Digg and Thea had arrived.

“No, I’m sick of dealing with her attitude. I have so many other things going on right now, that I’m not dealing with your alcoholic, judgy, addict, blackmailer of ex who can’t stand that things didn’t work out exactly how she wanted them to.” Felicity said. “Answer something for me, Laurel, what did I ever do to you?”

“You know what you did.”

“No, I really don’t. See, you’ve hated me since we met for no reason. If you have jealousy issues and you’re that convinced Oliver has feelings for me, that’s on you. Oliver and Sara getting on that boat, that’s on them. The Undertaking, that’s on Malcolm Merlyn. Tommy’s death, well, I think we both know who’s fault that is, and it sure as shit isn’t mine.”

“Are you saying its mine?”

“Well, Tommy did die rescuing you from a collapsed building that you ran back into for some stupid files.” Felicity pointed out. “You tell me.” She knew she was being unfair, but Felicity was sick of Laurel never being told to grow up and deal with anything.

“How dare you-?”

Sara had come downstairs as well.

“Oh, shut up for once in your life. You keep playing the victim card Laurel. First, because of the Gambit. Then, because Tommy died. Then, because your sister not being dead is apparently a bad thing. No matter what happens, you’re never to blame and everyone should feel sorry for you.” Felicity said. “And guess what, everyone’s sick of it.”

“You bitch! You can’t talk about me like that. What do you know about anything I've been through? Like you know what it feels like to keep losing people you care about.”

“You want to leave this room.” Felicity said in a deadly voice. Pain and loss were things Felicity was an expert at.

“See, Ollie, she’s threatening-.”

Felicity took a step towards Laurel. “Trust me, when I threaten you, you’ll know.”

“I take it I struck a nerve.” Laurel said. “What, did your parents abandon you or something? Was it because you're such an insufferable know-it-all?”

There's something Team Arrow didn't know: bringing up Felicity's parents was a huge no-no. It sometimes made her cry, but mostly it invoked a level or rage that they hadn't seen before. Especially in any type of rude or insulting manner. Or implying what happened to them was her fault, like Laurel just had. Felicity hadn't felt rage like this since before she escaped Russia. She didn't just want Laurel to stop talking or to leave. She wanted to annihilate her. Not necessarily kill her, but take everything from her and make her regret being born. And, unfortunately for the attorney, Felicity had the skills to do it.

“Laurel, stop.” Sara said noticing the look on Felicity’s face.

“Wow, of course you’re taking her sid-“

Laurel didn’t get to finish, because Felicity grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall. “No, Laurel. They didn’t abandon me. I just had to watch both of them die. But you know, you’re right. I couldn’t possibly understand. Not like you, who crawled into a bottle because it was easier than dealing with the fact that life isn't fair and people die. Then again, I don’t project my issues onto everyone else.”

“You know you just attacked an ADA, right?” Laurel said smugly.

“Go ahead. Press charges and see what happens.” Felicity said. “And yes, that is a threat.” She then turned to the others. “I think I’m actually gonna take the night off.” She stalked off.

Oliver went after her. He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. “Felicity wait-“

“Get your hands off me and let me leave. Right now.”

“No, we need to talk about what just happened. What the hell-“

When Oliver didn’t move his hand or back away, Felicity took matters into her own hands. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it, forcing him to loosen his grip. While he was in shock from her actions, she punched him once in the face, not very hard though. Just so he'd realize she wasn't playing around. “I don’t wanna hurt you Oliver, so please, just leave me alone.”

“This isn’t you.”

“Yes, it is.” Felicity said. She then let go of his wrist and he fell into his knees. “I’m leaving now.”

The blonde was reaching her car when someone else called out to her. “Wait!” She turned and saw who it was.

“Look, I know she’s your sister but-“ Felicity valued Sara’s friendship. However, she wasn’t in the mood right now to get yelled at for her reaction to Laurel’s accusation. The few people who knew her whole story knew her reaction was actually very understated.

“Not gonna threaten you for hurting her right now. You’re emotional and it wouldn’t do much good.” Sara said. “I’m more worried about what you said.”

“About my parents?” Sara nodded. “Both of them died before I was 10. They shot him in front of me, and my mother- well, I dom't talk about it ever, but let's just say it wasn't a fond memory or a good way to die. It wasn’t the first or last time I saw something like that, but it was the worst.” she admitted. “It’s stupid, right? I barely knew either of them, yet I reacted like that.”

“They were your parents.”

“Biologically.” Felicity said sadly. She then took a deep breath and turned to face Sara completely. “You can come threaten me or whatever tomorrow.”

* * *

 

**Felicity’s House**

When the blonde arrived at home, she found Sam waiting on her couch.

“Your ninja buddies dropped by, the ones from Shanghai. Said to tell you someone named Ra’s was quote ‘satisfied’ with how your story compared to the evidence.” He said as a greeting. “Wasn’t expecting you back yet.”

“Yeah, well. Things at the foundry got…emotional. I choked the ADA.”

“Laurel Lance? Oh, don’t give me that look. I looked into everyone related to the Arrow when I found your code, including her. What happened?”

“She started digging into me, probably to get rid of me. Then someone threatened her, she accused me of it. We got into a yelling match and she made some crack about my parents.”

“And you only choked her? I’m surprised.” Sam responded. “Last person who mentioned your mom barely survived.” A few people knew what happened to her mother, but Sam was the only person who knew everything about what happened.

“Well, I didn’t wanna traumatize my team.” She said. “You wanna tell me why you threatened Laurel?”

“Damn it. I hate how you do that." He sighed. "I wanted to give her a chance to give it up willingly. Before both of our sense of self-preservation kick in.”

Felicity knew what he was referring to. “We’re not killing her.”

“We don’t need to. And I think you know that.” He responded.

* * *

 

**ARGUS**

“What do you mean, you don’t know who it was?” Waller asked the cowering agent.

“Guards were knocked out from behind and didn’t wake up until the next shift arrived. Security cameras were taken down. And Slade Wilson was the only witness.”

They’d lost communication with Lian Yu shortly after the shift changed. It wasn’t until the evening shift guards showed up eight hours later that they found their unconscious colleagues. By then, the attacker and Slade Wilson were gone.

“The only thing we know it that the attacker was male.”

“Male?” Waller asked. She’d already concluded her ghost had done this, trying to cover her tracks. Taking Slade meant Waller couldn’t talk to him and find out who was in the warehouse.

“Yes. The, um, message on the wall, it wasn’t written in Wilson’s blood, and it doesn’t match any of the guards either. But the enzymes hadn’t broken down very much and we found male DNA markers.”

“What did it say again?”

“Stop while you’re ahead. This search won’t end well.”

“Cute.” Waller said sarcastically. “Put Oliver Queen under surveillance. If Slade’s free, he’ll come after him. His sister, Laurel Lance and his two sidekicks too. He already fell for the Felicity Smoak ruse once, so I doubt he'll take the bait again. Get everyone not working on the Butcher case looking for Wilson.”

Unbeknownst to ARGUS, their search wouldn’t last very long. Slade Wilson didn’t make it off of Lian Yu a second time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up on 3/16 in the afternoon


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what happened to Slade, and eavesdropping happens

**Lian Yu-Days Earlier**

Slade rolled his eyes. It was probably another ARGUS doctor arriving to psychoanalyze him or a new prisoner arriving. He didn’t care either way. New prisoners meant one more person he could fuck with when he was bored, and shrinks could only analyze so much when he refused to answer questions.

He went back to staring at the wall. A few moments later, the door leading to the cells was opened. An unconscious body fell through the doorway and a man stepped over it.

“Slade Wilson?” the man asked.

“Who’s asking? Not ARGUS, I’m guessing.” He responded.

“No, definitely not ARGUS.” The man replied. “You’re going to tell me about the Siege of Starling City.”

Wilson took a step closer to the bars and chuckled humorlessly. “Why would I do that?”

His visitor took a step closer as well. “Because the alternative won’t end well for you.”

“What? You gonna torture me? Been there, done that.”

“Well, you’ve never been tortured by me.” he sat down like he was expecting something to happen. The room started to spin a moment later. “It’s a good thing ARGUS doesn’t care enough to inspect the food.”

“How-?” he asked as he began to lose consciousness.

“Slow-acting sedative. Formulated to release only after it reaches the stomach.” He answered. “Enjoy your brief respite.”

Slade woke up sometime later, bound to a table. Looking around, he couldn’t tell where he was. The man from his cell was standing next to him, with his back to the former agent.

“Who are you?”

“My name isn’t important. What happened during the siege? How did you lose?”

“Fuck off.”

“I’d be a little less rude, Mr. Wilson. You wouldn’t want to make me angry already, would you? I'd hate to have to pay Joseph a visit.” he said as he turned. “That’s what I thought.”

“What is it you want to know?”

“Everything.” He responded as he injected Slade with something. “I just gave you, well, let’s call it an anti-adrenaline. Instead of making you numb to pain, it makes you sensitive to it. if I give you enough of it, a gust of wind will feel like its slicing your skin off. Why weren’t you caught in that tunnel like the others?”

“Screw you.”

“Disappointing.” The man said with a frown. He picked up a scapel and sliced along Slade’s arm. The mercenary winced but didn’t say anything. “What happened in that warehouse?”

The cycle continued for several hours. Slade would be asked a question, he’d give little to no answers, the man would cut or stab him, always careful not to damage him too much. Every so often, he’d get injected with the drug again.

“You have a high pain tolerance than I thought. Who else was in that warehouse?” the man asked.

“Two women the Arrow is in love with!” he yelled, unable to take the pain any longer.

“What are their names?”

“Felicity Smoak and Laurel Lance.”

“Did anyone else see them there?”

“Just the ‘heroes’ who rescued them.”

“But none of your men?”

“They weren’t my men, just pawns. Bodies to keep the kid and the cops distracted. The only one with me got shot when the Arrow showed up.”

“So, the only people who know who was there before the Arrow appeared are you, and those two women?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, Mr. Wilson.” The man said before pulling out a gun and shooting Slade in the head. “You’ve been very helpful.”

With the answers he needed, and a smirk on his face, Androvich walked out of his makeshift base and waited on the shore for his ship to arrive.

* * *

 

**Lian Yu Present**

Two lower level ARGUS agents were cautiusoly surverying the island. Waller had sent pretty much every guard, agent and analyst out looking for any clues as to where Slade, or his rescuer, had gone to.

“She’s gonna get us all killed.” One agent said to the other. “There’s no way we found all the landmines by now. We don’t even have a map.”

“She’s the director, so we have to. I don’t even know why she sent us out searching. This happened almost a week ago. I mean, didn’t the normal staff scope out the area when their one prisoner went missing?”

“Exactly. This is pointless. Plus it rained, so any evidence would’ve gotten washed away.”

“At least we don’t have to listen to her gripe about her ‘ghost’ anymore.” He said. The paur moved around a cluster of trees and saw a structure. “Wait, - did we know this building was here?” His companion nodded his head. it was left over from Project Scylla, but it should’ve looked much more dilapidated than it did. “Guess we should check it out anyways.”

The first thing they smelled when they entered was something rotting. The stench made both of them gag. Knowing Waller would just send them back here, they pressed forward. Further into the building, they came across a trail of blood. Following it, they found an unlocked room, which smelled way worse than the rest of the building. Opening the door, they discovered why. A decaying corpse was laid out on a table.

Both men puked, before radioing in what they found. When Waller arrived she wasn’t happy two of her agents contaminated her crime scene. She was less happy when a crime scene technician identified the body as Slade Wilson.

* * *

 

**Felicity’s House**

Sam and Felicity were in the middle of a debate about firearms when her phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, she saw it was Lyla and answered.

“Hello?.....What?....Ok, but how does involve me?....I see. Yeah, I’ll go stay with a friend or something….no you don’t need to do that….thanks for the head’s up.” Felicity said before hanging up the phone. “Slade Wilson is dead.”

“Yes, he is.”

“Did you-?”

“No, but I suspected ARGUS or our former employers might go to him. I couldn’t exactly tail ARGUS anywhere, but the Russians were a different matter. They never did fix that bug in any of their encryption.”

“So, you’ve been spying on them.”

“Such an ugly word. I was monitoring a potential threat. When one of those threats wanted a boat to take him to Lian Yu, I noticed. And gave him a lift.”

“So, you just drove him out there. Led him right to the one person who could ID me?”

“Well, yes and no. I took him there, I bugged his clothes, and after I came back to get him, I eliminated the problem.” Sam said. “Do you really think I could do that to you? Betray the only person I can be myself with. I don’t pretend to be a good person, but when someone threatens people I care about, I do something about it.”

“Sorry, it’s just- not really used to people having my back. So, he’s rotting at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Exactly. He did manage to send the words ‘Starling City’ to the commander before I shot him though.”

“So, they’re coming here.”

“In fairness, they already were here.” Sam defended. "Might be time for you to change things up a bit."

* * *

 

**Outside**

Someone sat outside Felicity’s house. For the last several hours, a man had been stationed in a tree across the street, observing what was going on inside the blonde’s home. The conversation was intriguing to say the least. Having heard enough, the man left to talk to his superiors.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Felicity plan, ARGUS and the Russians get surprise calls, Laurel loses and Ra's wants to talk.

**Arrow Cave**

The next evening, Felicity was in the Arrow cave, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. Sam had come with her, wanting to make sure he and Oliver were clear on a few things. Luckily, or unluckily, Oliver wasn’t the first person to arrive. Sara was.

The Canary looked between Felicity and Sam before saying, “hey, could you give Felicity and I a minute? There’s just….something we need to talk about, just us girls.”

He looked between the pair, saw Felicity’s face and almost said no. then he remembered what happened the last time he tried to intervene when he saw that face. She completed her assignment and then kicked his ass for being an ‘insufferable, overprotective idiot who woudlve just slowed her down’ and ‘if I needed your help, I’d ask’. He gave the two blondes a weird look and said, “I’m just gonna….go over there.”

Sara waited until Sam was on the other side of the foundry before she spoke. “I know she crossed a line. And I know it probably felt like it was a long time coming. But if you ever hurt my sister again, I’ll kill you.”

“Ok.” Felicity said. She didn’t mean ‘ok’ as in ‘message received’ or ‘I won’t apologize, but I am sorry’, or even ‘I have to say something, so I’ll say this’ way, she meant it in ‘I’d really like to see that’ way.  Sara didn’t know what she was capable of, most of the League didn’t, Sam and Ra’s were the only ones who really knew. Maybe it was arrogance, maybe it wasn’t, but if she could beat Malcolm, logic said she could most likely beat Sara, not that she particularly wanted to.

Oliver entered the foundry just then, and started talking when he saw Felicity. “Hey, are we gonna talk about- what is he doing here?”

“Helping a friend, like I told you a week ago.” Sam taunted. He was kinda enjoying pushing Oliver’s buttons. “Except, unlike you guys, I’m actually doing something to help Ana.”

“You’ve been gone for days, how exactly-?”

“Guys, not the time. Slade’s dead.”

“Slade Wilson’s dead?” Digg asked. He and Roy had just come down the stairs.

“No doubt because of him.” Oliver said pointing to Sam. “Is this how you help people? By killing anyone in your way.”

“Weren't you doing the same thing last year?” He retorted. “And I didn’t kill Wilson. I just killed the guy who killed him.”

“Because that’s so much better.”

“Yes, it is. See Slade was tortured by one of the Russians for information. I killed that Russian before he could tell his boss what he found out.” He then turned to Sara. “And you’re welcome too, by the way.”

“Why should I be thanking you?”

“Because all he wanted to know was who was in that warehouse during the siege. Slade eventually gave up two names, Felicity and Laurel. So, I kinda saved your sister’s ass in the process.”

“None of this is important right now.” Felicity said forcefully. ‘The Russian didn’t have time to send our names, but he did manage to send his boss something. He knows I’m in Starling City.”

“So, they’re coming here. Your past is bringing a bunch of Russians here.” Oliver said angrily.

“Well, at least it’s not a psychotic human weapon, or the League of Assassins.” Sam said. “Look, she just wanted to give you a heads up, as we progress to stage 2.”

“Stage two?”

“I’m tired of playing defense.” Felicity said.

* * *

 

**Russian Hideout**

The commander paced his makeshift office in anger. It had been days since Androvich had made contact. He should’ve reported back with more information by now. His message of ‘Starling City’ was a good start, but there were 288,093 women in Starling City. They needed to narrow the search down significantly.

“No word?” his assistant asked as he entered the room.

“Not since he reported he was leaving Lian Yu.”

“You don’t think-“

“If he were caught by ARGUS, we’d know.”

The other man was going to respond when his burner phone rang. He answered, hoping it was his missing agent.

“Piotr?”

“Sorry to disappoint.” A modulated, but distinctly female voice said. “I’m afraid your operative is quite dead.”

“How do you-?”

“He found out my name. I couldn’t just leave him alive after that.” the woman said. “Not with you all hunting me.”

“Anastasia.”

“I haven’t been that girl in a long time. She’s dead. And I won’t be sticking around for very long.”

“We found you once, we’ll find you again. No matter where you run, I will find you.”

“Petrov said the same thing. But then I found him, and I put a bullet through his skull.” The woman said nonchalantly. “Don’t worry about that, because you won’t need to find me.”

“We won’t?”

“No, I want to go home. In five minutes, you’ll receive a text with an address. Meet me there at 9:30 pm tomorrow.”

“Let me guess, you want me to come alone.” The commander said. He knew this had to be a trap.

“Alone, with every agent you have, I don’t care. We haven’t met, but I’m being quite serious.”

Before the commander could reply, she hung up.

* * *

 

**ARGUS**

Waller was sitting at her desk when the phone rang. “How did you get this number?”

“I have my ways.” A male voice she didn’t recognize said. “I’ve got information you want.”

“I doubt that. who are you?”

“My name doesn’t matter.”

“This conversation is pointless. Goodbye.”

“I guess you don’t want to find your ghost then.” The man said, clearly telling Waller he knew he was baiting her.

“I’m listening, you have two minutes.”

“I don’t know her name, but I know her face. That’s what matters after all, she can change her name all she wants, changing her face is harder. Saw her in Dubrovnik awhile back. I was pretty sure someone had killed her. Imagine my surprise when I saw her yesterday.”

“How do you know it’s her? That she’s the person I was after in Dubrovnik?”

“Because I saw her kill one of your agents. Can’t get much more damning than that.”

“Tell me more.”

“Yeah, no. That’s not gonna happen like this.” the man chuckled. “I’m gonna send you an address, be there at 9:30 pm tomorrow.”

“Do you really think I’m that stupid?” this was a trap. Waller had set traps enough times to recognize one.

“Hey, you’re the one who wants to find her. I don’t care if you bring everyone you know, just show up.” The call ended.

* * *

 

**DA’s Office**

Laurel was finishing up her paperwork for the night when her boss and a few others came into the room. The DA looked very uncomfortable for a few seconds before speaking.

“Ms. Lance-“

“Kate. What’s going on?”

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go.” She said. “Please pack your things and these gentlemen will escort you out.”

“You’re firing me? On what grounds?”

“I’m afraid I-“

“No, tell me why.”

“Because you were reinstated through underhanded means.” One of the people Laurel didn’t know answered.

“Underhanded. What are you-?”

“Blackmailing the district attorney’s office is a very serious matter, Ms. Lance. Regardless of how justified you felt in doing so.”

“I didn’t blackmail-“

“I’m not here to debate this with you. This isn’t a court room. You’re fired, please don’t make security have to remove you.” the unknown man said.

“No, I-“

“Laurel, just take the easy way out for once.” Kate said. “Fighting this makes it public. You could get disbarred or even arrested.”

Laurel begrudgingly packed up her things and stormed out of the building. She knew that Felicity had something to do with this. The blonde would pay. Unfortunately for Laurel, Felicity had nothing to do with it, and Sam was just getting started.

* * *

 

**Felicity’s House**

Felicity was in the middle of making breakfast when she felt someone else enter the room. She didn’t hear any footsteps or doors opening, but she felt like she was being watched.

“Are you just going to stand there?” She asked whoever it was.

“No, but I did not think confronting you would be wise while you are holding a hot pan.” Ra’s answered. “Shall I return later?”

“No.” Felicity said, turning the burner off and putting the frying pan down. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Very well.” Ra’s said, taking a seat at her kitchen table. “We need to discuss Shanghai.”

“What about it? I fought, I got stabbed, I survived.”

“Yes, but it was not just any sword you survived.” Ra’s rebutted. “You survived the sword of Ra’s al Ghul.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna go hide now. I'll see you in two weeks


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Russians and ARGUS plan, Ra's informs Felicity of some things, and things in the Arrowcave get a little worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said I was taking a week off? Turns out I'm a liar....

**Arrow Cave-Last Night**

“I’m tired of playing defense.” Felicity said.

“What- what does that mean?” Roy asked.

“For you, nothing. I don’t want you getting in my way.” Felicity didn’t need their help, and after the last few days, she didn’t want their help.

“But we’re a team.”

“Are we? Because ever since you found out the truth about me, you’ve all been treating me differently. You just accused me of intentionally bringing the Russians here, when really it’s a mix between your fault and Waller’s. Waller for not just fucking off and letting Dubrovnik go and yours for not just killing Slade. The only reason we’re in this situation is because of the siege. Sara brought the League here, and she knew well enough that they would follow her.”

“That’s not-“

“Don’t say its not the same thing, because yes, it is. Yet, Sara gets your help and I get looked at like I’m a serial killer. John refuses to look me in the eye anymore and the only person who talks to me like I’m an actual person is Roy. I stood by all of you as you made stupid choices, some of which nearly got me killed, yet none of you can return the favor. What, now that you know who I really am I’m not good enough for you? Yeah, no, you’re not getting involved.” She said. “Besides, this is between me, ARGUS and the Russians. Stay out of it.”

* * *

 

**League Hideout**

“My liege.” an assassin said as he entered the room Ra’s was in.

“You are meant to be watching Al Shabh. Did she discover you or have you left your post for no reason?”

Ra's had stationed him outside of Felicity's home. He was instructed to stay there until being told otherwise. 

“Neither. I overheard a conversation that may be of some interest. It seems her ongoing cat-and-mouse game between herself, ARGUS and Project Nike is coming to a close.”

“In what manner?”

“She did not say, but I have a theory. I believe she intends to ensnare both groups into a trap. Pit them against each other.”

“Devious, ruthless, and conniving. Fate chose my successor well. It seems Al Shabh and I require another conversation.”

* * *

 

**Felicity’s house-Present**

“It was not just any sword you survived.” Ra’s rebutted. “You survived the sword of Ra’s al Ghul.”

“Yeah, I don’t need a reminder. I distinctly remember you stabbing me.” Felicity responded. “I don’t know what your point is.”

“There is a prophecy. It says that he who survives the sword of Ra’s al Ghul is destined to become Ra’s al Ghul.” He informed her. “You have fulfilled it.”

“Ok, theres just one problem. The prophecy says ‘he’, I’m not a man.”

“Don’t pretend to be ignorant. It’s unbecoming and you discredit yourself as a warrior. We both know the translation says ‘he’ because masculine wording is the linguistical noun default.”

“So, I’m destined to take your place. Because you stabbed me and I lived.”

“Precisely.” Ra’s then said something in a language Felicity didn’t speak.

“Um, what?”

“It’s an old phrase, from a dialect no longer spoken. It means ‘the tale to be told begins thus’. It was said to me years ago by a man who’s place I took.”

“Ok. Can this tale begin after I deal with ARGUS and the Russians? ‘Cause I’m kinda on a running clock.”

“It has already begun.” Ra’s said standing. “Conclude your affairs, but I will warn you of one thing. You cannot outrun this.”

* * *

 

**ARGUS**

Waller had had ARGUS agents working on gathering intel and doing recon on the address her mysterious source had sent her. It appeared to be an empty warehouse on the edge of the Glades. It was completely empty, no signs of anyone having been there in months. She’d assigned an agent to do surveillance from across the street, but so far he hadn’t reported any suspicious activity.

“Where are we with that call?” Waller asked. she wanted to know how the caller had gotten her number and who he was.

“Nowhere. The signal’s impossible to trace. One second it was in Starling, the next Hong Kong and the next Iowa. Guess he doesn’t want to be found.”

* * *

 

**Russian Hideout**

“What do we know?” one of the soldiers working for the commander asked.

“Anastasia Rostova has made contact. She wants to meet with us, claims she wants to come home. She even suggested a meeting place.”

“And we believe her?”

“Of course we don’t believe her. She’s a spy and an assassin. I wouldn’t trust her to take the garbage out. But this presents a rare opportunity to capture her.”

“She knows we’re coming.”

“But she doesn’t know how many of us are coming. She escaped us using the element of surprise. She stayed hidden by being able to outmaneuver us. She’s an extraordinary fighter, but even she can’t fight off two dozen trained agents.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“The location is an old factory in the North District. Building was closed up after that earthquake and never reopened.”

* * *

 

**Verdant**

Oliver was working out his frustration on a training dummy when the door to the foundry opened. Two sets of feet could be heard coming down the stairs and he turned around to see who it was. Felicity and Sam were carrying a large metal case between them and didn’t seem to notice him there.

Sam. Oliver was really starting to hate that guy. Between his ‘I’m the only one who understands you’ act and his penchant for always trying to be Felicity’s knight-in-shining armor, the archer wanted to knock his teeth out. Felicity’s actions recently, threatening Laurel, yelling at the team, killing people, it was all because he showed up. It didn’t help that Sam and Oliver were both Felicity’s type. Strong, broody, protective. Objectively speaking, Sam wasn’t unattractive either. Bold green eyes, short-cropped dark hair, tall, chiseled features, Oliver could admit that, unlike Barry Allen, Sam came close to him in terms of looks.

“Why is this thing so heavy?” Sam asked Felicity.

“Because it has enough guns and ammo inside it to take over a small country.” Felicity answered. “Thanks for getting it out of my basement.”

“Don’t know why you buried it in concrete.”

“It was symbolic. I was burying Anastasia Rostova.” She shot back. “Oh, hey Oliver.”

“Hey, what is all this?”

“Does he not know what a gun looks like?” Sam asked Felicity in an amused voice.

“I mean, why are they here?”

“I think you already know the answer to that one.” Felicity said as she started pulling weapons out of the case. “Let’s see. Glock, Glock, Sig, AK, AK, another AK. Man, I have a lot of AKs. M16, AR15, another AR15, ah, here it is.” The blonde pulled out a hard case, which looked like it could hold a sniper rifle.

For the next two hours, Oliver sat awkwardly in the lair as Felicity and Sam cleaned, and in some cases assembled, the cache of weapons. When they finished with each weapon, they put it back into the case. The pair finished working right as the door opened, revealing Sara. Laurel came rushing down the stairs a few moments later.

“I bet you think that was so funny!” Laurel yelled at Felicity.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said, turning away from the angry, and frankly insane, brunette.

Laurel grabbed her arm and forced her to look at her. “Don’t walk away when I’m talking to you.”

Sara and Oliver both watched the confrontation warily. Sam glanced over with a bored expression. Felicity’s face darkened.

“You have three seconds to get your hands off of me before I break your arm.” She said in a deadly voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clearly, Felicity isn't gonna deal with the Russians or ARGUS for a little while.  
> Comments? Questions? Feedback?


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurel and Felicity (and Sara and Felicity) face-off, the Russians and ARGUS are both so may steps behind they don't know what game they're playing, and Oliver is still missing the point.

**Arrow Cave**

“You have three seconds to get your hands off of me before I break your arm.” Felicity said to Laurel in a deadly voice.

“Yeah, right. You’re all talk, you won’t- FUCK!” Laurel yelled.

Felicity had grabbed Laurel’s wrist with one hand. She pulled the brunette’s arm towards her. With a vise-like grip, Felicity held Laurel’s arm so that the attorney couldn’t pull away. Then, she brought her elbow down, hard, on the middle of Laurel’s forearm. Everyone heard a distinct ‘snap’.

“You might wanna go to a hospital.” Felicity said before she turned away. Sara had rushed over to Felicity, and moved to attack, which Felicity blocked. “Really? I don’t want to fight you, Sara.”

“I warned you not to hurt my sister.”

“And you should’ve warned your sister not to pick fights with me.” The blonde responded.

“I’m- you- I’m an assistant district attorney!” Laurel said between her gasps of pain.

“Actually, you’re not. You got fired.” Sam said.

“Who are- how do-?” the brunette wanted to know how Sam, who she’d never met before, knew she was fired.

“Because I’m the one who got you fired.” Sam answered. “Piece of advice, don’t blackmail someone in a building full of security equipment.” Laurel was about to respond but she passed out.

“Let go of my arm and we can settle this like adults.” Sara said to Felicity. The Canary had tried to break the hold Felicity had on her arm, and she hadn’t been successful.

“This isn’t gonna end the way you think it will.” She responded. “But fine.” She said, releasing her grip.

Sara immediately swung again, which Felicity blocked. She used the momentum of Sara’s swing to propel her into one of the metal tables. Sara gasped in shock and then centered herself. She aimed a kick at Felicity’s stomach, which hit its mark, but didn’t have enough weight behind it to seriously hurt the blonde. She aimed another kick, which Felicity blocked and used to make Sara fall onto the ground. Felicity then kicked her in the ribs twice. Hard enough to hurt, not hard enough to break or crack anything though.

“Guys, maybe-“

“Don’t get involved.” Sam told Oliver.

Sara got back up and took up a fighting stance. The next minute consisted of Sara trying to hit Felicity, with the blows either being blocked or glancing off. With each failed attempt, Sara got more and more angry. Felicity, as far as Oliver could tell, just seemed bored with what was happening. Eventually, Felicity managed to get Sara into a sleeper hold.

“I told you this wouldn’t end the way you wanted it to.” Felicity said right as Sara was beginning to lose consciousness. Standing up, Felicity dusted herself off and turned to Oliver. “Something you want to say?”

“What the hell was that?”

“That, Mr. Queen, was the real Anastasia Rostova. Isn’t she amazing?” Sam responded. He bent down to pick Laurel up. “I guess we’re stopping at Starling General.”

“Yeah. She might be a vindictive bitch, but I don’t actually want her dead.” Felicity said as she headed towards the stairs.

Sam followed behind Felicity, carrying Laurel bridal-style. They reached her car and Sam slid her into the backseat. Felicity was getting all her weapons hidden and stuck her head out right as she saw Sam give Laurel something.

“What was that?”

“Oraxium, it’ll make her forget the last few hours and shows up like Oxycotin on a drug test.” Sam answered. “What else should I do? If we just drop her off, the cops will question her and she’ll pin everything on you. This way, we don’t have to kill her and we don’t have to run either. Now, we’re just concerned citizens who found a woman clearly needing medical attention.”

“She’s a recovering addict.” Felicity pointed out.

“An addict relapsing wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Especially after losing a job.” Sam pointed out. “By dawn, it’ll be out of her system, Laurel will be on the way to rehab and everybody wins.”

Felicity and Sam drove Laurel to the hospital. They told the triage nurse they found Laurel acting erratically and brought her there thinking she might be having a reaction. As soon as Laurel was taken back into the ER, the pair left.

* * *

 

**North District**

The Russians stood in the warehouse they were sent to, wondering what exactly was going on. Anastasia had told the commander to come here at this exact time, yet no one else had arrived yet. The man thought it might be a trap at first, but now it seemed more like a diversion or stalling tactic.

“We give it five minutes and then we leave.” The commander told the others.

“You don’t need five minutes.” A voice came from the ceiling. “Did you really think I was gonna make it this easy to find me? This was….let’s call it a test.”

* * *

 

**The Glades**

Waller, Lyla, and two dozen other ARGUS agents stood in the warehouse their mysterious caller had led them to. The building had been under surveillance all day, no one had arrived and the man hadn’t called back.

“This was a mistake.” Waller said. “Another wild goose chase. She probably orchestrated this whole thing. Pack it up, and let’s go.”

“It’s not a wild goose chase. It’s called precaution.” A voice said, seemingly coming from nowhere. “Don’t look so surprised, you’ve had the building under surveillance all day, I’ve had it under surveillance for a week. I wanted to make sure you could follow instructions.”

“Come out and talk to us then.”

“Oh, I was never gonna meet you here. I’ll tell you where to find me though. You just need to do one thing for me first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felicity vs. the Russians vs. ARGUS is up next.  
> Prepare yourselves.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity's plan comes together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brace yourselves.

**North District**

“This was….let’s just call it a test.” Anastasia told the Russians. “You passed.”

“What do we get?”

“My real location. You’ll get it at exactly 10pm. I should warn you though. I’ll only remain here for twenty minutes after I send it, so tick tock.”

At exactly 10 pm, Felicity gave the Russians an address. It was the warehouse where Slade had held her and Laurel.

* * *

 

**The Glades**

 “I’ll tell you where to find me though. You just need to do one thing for me first.” Sam told ARGUS. “Send Lyla Michaels home.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I’m not just telling you where to find me, I’m telling you where to find her and you’ll need to move fast.”

“What does that have to do with Michaels?” Waller asked.

“On the surface nothing, but if we’re going after this ghost, things will get bloody. And Dubrovnik is nothing compared to what this woman is capable of.” He paused. “The ghost doesn’t have any scruples, but I do, and I won’t leave an infant to grow up without her mother. When I know Lyla Michaels is home, I’ll call you back.”

With no other options, Waller sent Lyla home. For the next twenty minutes, ARGUS received nothing but radio silence. At exact 10pm, Sam’s voice spoke again.

“Meet me at the warehouse where you found her blood. You have twenty minutes before I’m gone.”

* * *

 

**Deathstroke Warehouse**

Felicity and Sam had planned their locations well. The building she sent the Russians to and the building Sam sent ARGUS to were equidistant from their final location. Both teams would arrive at the same time and not have time to do any set-up or surveillance. Neither group was aware that Felicity and Sam had hacked the existing ARGUS equipment to make sure their arrival went unnoticed.

“You sure about this?” Sam asked as he and Felicity prepared their arsenal.

“Positive. They should’ve left me alone.” She said as she finished assembling her sniper rifle. “Lyla’s the only person I wanted to keep out of this.”

“That’s why you sent her home.”

“John is a friend, or at least he was. And I don’t want to take Sara’s mother away from her.” she admitted. “If something happened to Lyla, it means I’m not better than the director.”

Sam was about to reply when one of Felicity’s proximity sensors went off. A second later, another one, on the opposite side of the building went off.

“Showtime.”

Sam and Felicity both saw a perverse beauty in how everything played out. ARGUS and the Russians arrived right on time. They realized who the other group was at the same moment.

“I knew this was a trap.” Waller said. Her Russian counterpart was saying close to the same thing.

“It’s actually not.” Sam’s voice called out. “When I said I’d tell you where to find her, I meant it. I didn’t know there’d be others coming.”

“Where is she and who are you?” the commander asked.

“Close by and who I am doesn’t matter.” Sam answered. “Both of you want the same thing, and in the interest of fairness, I feel both of you should be informed at the same time.”

“This isn’t a damn scavenger hunt.” Waller said. She then turned to her agents. “We’re leaving.” They turned, but before anyone could make it out of the building, four shots rang out in succession. Two ARGUS agents fell to the floor dead. Two Russians fell dead shortly after.

The ARGUS agents and the Russians both drew their weapons.

“Stand down.”

“That will not happen. I will not leave this building without the information I seek.”

The two groups stood at an impasse. No one lowered their weapons, and nobody took a shot. Waller was assessing the commander, the commander was study Waller. Both leaders were weighing their options when the first bullet went flying.

No one could explain where it had come from. ARGUS thought it was one of the Russians. the Russians thought it was ARGUS. It actually came from Sam and Felicity who, while Waller and the commander were facing off, had snuck to better vantage points. Felicity took aim at a Russian at the same time Sam shot an ARGUS agent in the leg. The next few minutes saw exchange of gunfire and both sides losing several men.

After a few minutes, Felicity set off an alarm which caught everyone’s attention.

“I have to admit, I really didn’t think it would be this easy. But seeing you like this now, I shouldn’t have been surprised.” Felicity called out. She made sure to let a slight accent bleed into her voice to keep up the suspense. “Getting all of you to do exactly what I wanted exactly when I wanted.”

“Ah, Anastasia. Finally.”

“I told you days ago, that girl was dead.” Felicity said. “In fact, I haven’t been Anastasia Rostova in a long, long time.”

Waller snorted. “I spend eight years chasing a ghost and now you just tell me who you are. This was the case I couldn’t solve?”

“Oh, but Amanda, you already know my name.” Felicity shot back. A few more gunshots rang out and one person from each team went down. “That’s the best part of this whole situation. You’ve met me. Face-to-face.”

“Come out here then.”

“I have a better idea. Whoever is still alive in three minutes gets to talk to me.” She responded. “Your time starts….Now.”

The next three minutes were a bloodbath. Bullets and knives went flying, two ARGUS agents started a fist-fight with one of the Russians. When the dust settled, the commander was dead, not by Waller’s hand, but by Felicity’s. Most of the Russians were dead or dying, as were many ARGUS agents. Fifty people entered the warehouse, but only six were left standing. Waller, four ARGUS agents and one Russian.

“That was…..impressive.” Sam said from one of the rafters.

“Wasn’t it?” Felicity responded. “Well, I suppose a deal is a deal.”

The pair had chosen their setting well. Not only was the choice of building ironic, but it fit their flair for the dramatic. Felicity landed on the main floor of the warehouse, but her face still wasn’t visible due to the shadows.

She slowly walked into the light. “Hello Amanda.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I suck.  
> You'll see what happens next Friday


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurel and Sara deal with the consequences of fighting Felicity, Team Arrow gets surprising news and Waller meets her ghost for real.

**Starling General**

When Laurel Lance woke up, she discovered she couldn’t move. Looking down, she saw that she was strapped to a hospital bed. “Hello?” she yelled out.

Soon a nurse came into the room. “Evening, Ms. Lance. Nice of you to join us.” She remarked as she checked Laurel over.

“Why am I strapped to this bed? How did I get here?”

“Your friend Felicity brought you in. said she found you disoriented, acting erractic. She thought you might be having a reaction to something.” the nurse answered her neutrally.

“Well, I’m clearly fine, so can you unstrap me?”

“I’m afraid I can’t. Between what we found in your blood work and your behavior when they brought you in, you’re under a hold.” The nurse said. “I’ll go fetch Dr. Caldera.”

* * *

 

**Arrow Cave**

Sara stirred and realized whatever she was laying on was very uncomfortable. Opening her eyes, she realized why, she was laid out on one of the metal tables in the foundry. She saw Roy give Oliver a nod, and the archer turned around.

“You’re awake.”

“Yeah. What happened?” The last thing Sara remembered was trying to fight Felicity. “I was fighting Felicity, and the rest is-“

“She kinda- well, she got the upper hand and knocked you out. Then she and Sam took Laurel and left.”

“Took her where?”

“Sam mentioned Starling General. You dad’s been calling you too.” Oliver told her. Sara sat up, snatched her phone away from Oliver and left. As she exited, she tried not dwell on what had happened in her fight with Felicity. Not only had the hacker won, but she was barely trying. Either Sara was rusty or Felicity was better than most of the League, and Sara certainly wasn’t rusty.

Downstairs, Roy, Oliver and John weren’t sure what to do. They couldn’t believe that not only had Felicity broken Laurel’s arm, but she also defeated the Canary. It was a lot to take in. The group didn’t know what they should do now. They wanted to find Felicity, but they couldn’t. Oliver wanted to know what happened to Laurel, but Felicity didn’t seem keen to share. Mostly, they all just wanted this situation to be over.

Their decision was made for them, when Lyla called Digg a little after 9:30.

“Hello….what do you mean you’re home?.....wait, hold on a sec.” John put the phone down and set it on speaker. “Say that again.”

“Our source, the man who called Waller with intel about her ghost, we were supposed to meet with him tonight. He refused to tell her anything unless Waller sent me home. He mentioned me by name.” Lyla answered.

“Did he say why?”

“He claims he’s gonna lead Waller directly to the woman, told us Dubrovnik was nothing. Said he didn’t want to be responsible for making an infant lose her mother. I’ve got a bad feeling about this Johnny.”

“I’ll call you back.” Digg said before ending the call. “Why would he send her home?”

“Because it’s a trap. The man was probably Sam, and Felicity’s setting up some ambush for ARGUS.” Oliver reasoned. “Felicity’s- we don’t know what she will or won’t do, but I think it was her way of making sure Lyla wasn’t in the crossfire. Based on the firepower I saw, they’re planning something big.”

“We need to find her before she does something she’ll regret.” Digg said.

“She already took care of the one thing she’d regret.” Roy said. “Lyla’s her friend, or at least her friend’s friend, Felicity doesn’t care about the rest of ARGUS. The only person she’d feel bad about getting hurt is Lyla.”

“We still need to find her.”

* * *

 

**Warehouse**

Felicity slowly walked into the light. “Hello Amanda.”

“You? This is a joke.” Waller said dismissively.

“It’s not and I can prove it. Your team went to that apartment in Croatia because Agent Miller noticed all the dead Russians were killed within a half mile radius of the building. He also saw a figure heading in that direction after Dmitry Karlov’s death. The majority of your agents were shot from a rooftop across the street. You knew they were killed by the same person as the Soviets but you could never prove it, because a Soviet slug with no stripping is a dead end and you knew it. after they went down, someone went into the building to make sure they were dead. One of them wasn’t, Agent Carnelli. He’d moved at the right moment, so the bullet hit him in the lung, not the heart, but he was still dying. As part of some last stand, he took out his boot knife and slashed his attacker in the leg. That’s where you got the blood sample from. I still have the scar. He begged for his life and I shot him in the head with his own service weapon. You tried to dust it for prints, but I don’t have any. As I stepped over his body, I told it wasn’t personal. Then again, you know that, because you heard it over the comms as it went down. That’s what, three things that weren't in any of the reports.”

Waller, for only the second time ever, looked dumbstruck. “You’re the woman I’ve been chasing for eight years?”

“’Yup. See, I lied earlier. The best part of this wasn’t that you already met me. The best part was that you came to me to help catch, well, me. I’ll admit, I got a sick satisfaction out of this whole scenario.” Felicity said. “Watching you chase down fake leads, hearing from Lyla how agitated you kept getting. It was hilarious, for me.”

“Michaels is our mole then.” Waller said to one of her remaining agents. “That’s why she’s not here.”

“No, Lyla didn’t know anything. I just didn’t want Sara to lose her mother, that’s why she’s not here. And to answer your next question, none of ‘Team Arrow’ knew until recently. Do you really think I would’ve intentionally let Wilson grab me if they knew? Or that I would’ve stayed out of the field? They knew as much as you did, absolutely nothing.”

“Who’d you get to kill Slade then?”

“That one’s on me actually.” Sam said stepping in.

The one remaining Russian started sputtering. “Sokolov, you- you’re-“

“Alive? Yes. Which is a shock to you, because you thought she killed me.” Sam said looking between the Russian and Felicity. “Kuznetsov and I went to bring her back. They found his body in a river with part of his skull missing and assumed I suffered the same fate. I would have, if Ana here shot me in the head instead of in the chest. I was finally free.” He then pulled a handgun out. “This is me returning the favor.” The last Russian fell to the ground dead. He then turned to one of the ARGUS agents and shot him. “P.S. that was your mole.”

“Let me guess, this is where you kill us too?” Waller asked sarcastically. “You do know this whole building is under surveillance, right?”

“You do know I can disable security cameras, right?” Felicity shot back. “You really should’ve let this go. One cold case isn’t that bad.”

“It was the principle of the matter.”

“Yeah, look where that’s got you. Dead agents, dead Russians, Congress up your ass because you tried to bomb Starling back to the Stone Ages. All of those, except that last one, they totally could’ve been avoided, even Dubrovnik. If you had just left me alone.” Felicity said. “I didn’t want to be a Russian spy and I sure as hell didn’t want to join ARGUS. I’d already been around death enough for one lifetime. I just wanted a normal life, a better life. You should’ve just left me alone.”

“This display would’ve been a lot more impressive if we didn’t outnumber you.” one of the ARGUS agents remarked.

“Actually, you don’t anymore.” Sam said. “There’s no point in hiding, you two.”  Oliver and Roy descended from the ceiling, both wore unreadable expressions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I keep dragging this out....  
> Thoughts? Comments? Theories?


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The conclusion of Felicity and Waller's cat-and-mouse game. Oliver and Roy are there, but who's side are they on?

**Warehouse**

It was like some kind of Mexican standoff. Felicity and Sam on one side, Waller and the few ARGUS people on another, and lastly, Roy and Oliver on their own side. Waller and Felicity were wondering what the pair were doing there. Whose side were they really on, Waller’s or Felicity’s?

“Did you come here just to stand there dumbfounded, Mr. Queen?” Waller asked.

“Yes, Oliver, why are you here?” Sam asked.

“Not here for you, or her,” he gestured to Waller. “For Felicity.”

“Here to help me or here to stop me?” Felicity asked, studying Oliver for a few moments. “Right. Sorry, this is who I am. Nothing and no one has been able to change that.”

“Fine. Queen, can you deal with her so we can all go home?” Waller asked. if Oliver wasn’t there to help Felicity, that meant he was siding with Waller, which meant he’d knock her out and ARGUS could take her away.

“I just said I wasn’t here to help you, Amanda.” Oliver pointed out.

“And you’re not here to help her, either.”

“No, I’m not. I just- I want to understand why. Why do all this, why not let ARGUS’s case go cold again? Why send Lyla home?”

“Queen, if you don’t kill or knock her out in the next two minutes,” Waller began to threaten, “I’ll be putting both of you on Task Force X together.”

Roy drew back his bow and aimed at one of the other agents who looked like he was trying to catch Felicity off-guard.

Felicity, without looking away from Oliver, drew a weapon, pointed it at one of the ARGUS agents and shot. When the man grunted, Felicity finally tore her gaze from the archer. “That bullet can pierce pretty much any body armor. If Agent Stevens doesn’t get to an ER in the next two or three minutes, he’ll die.” Felicity’s arm shifted slightly and she fired two more shots, one for each of the remaining two ARGUS agents. “Those two will last maybe five. What’s it gonna be Amanda, catch me or save them?”

“You, of course. Agents are replaceable, and you’ve been a black mark on my record for years.”

The blonde sighed, turned to face the three agents and said, “for the record, I am sorry about this. I have nothing against any of you.” By this point, Stevens had started bleeding out. Felicity was a good shot, the bullet hit just above the aorta. He’d died of exsanguination in the next minute or two. Felicity put the gun away and turned back to Oliver and Roy. “That’s why I did this, what she just said. If you had asked her not-so-dearly departed Russian equivalent, he’d say the same thing. She wasn’t gonna stop, the Russians weren’t gonna stop. I’ve given both of them several opportunities to walk away, they wouldn’t. then, things escalated to where I couldn’t ignore reality anymore.”

“I- I don’t-”

“I wanted to make Waller chase her tail for another decade or so. But the Russians found a copy of my psych eval, still not sure how, and they knew I was in the city.”

“Um, I’m not seeing how that-“ Roy interjected.

“Despite what you all seem to think, Ana isn’t a sociopath. She kills when she has to, but that doesn’t mean she likes it.” Sam explained. “Even before she escaped Russia, they knew she didn’t like doing it and on assignments we were told to kill any witnesses or potential witnesses. She always went out of her way to avoid having to kill anyone she didn’t have to. A two-day assignment once turned into a week because she refused to kill the mark until she got him completely alone.”

“Ok, but that still doesn’t-“

“In addition to not wanting to kill people, I also showed a tendency they saw as a weakness. I’d rather get hurt than let someone get hurt. When a friend of mine broke the rules when we were kids, I’d always say it was me. So I got punished, I got beaten, and so on. Knowing that, the Russians wanted to draw me out. They figured if they dropped enough bodies, if they turned Starling into a big enough war zone, I’d surrender myself. And, I would have.” Felicity said, “And Waller here just admitted that she’d be fine with all of that happening if it meant she caught me. For all I know, she might’ve stooped that low once she caught wind of their plan. Doesn’t matter how many agents or civilians die, right Amanda, as long as you ‘won’. That’s why I did all of this. To stop the war before it even starts.”

If it was possible, Waller got even angrier. “You think this changes anything? I know who you are now. I know what you look like. And now, my competition is all gone. Run all you want, I’ll get more agents, and I’ll find you.”

Sam started making a tsk-ing sound and walked closer to Waller. “Oh, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda. You’re out of ammo, so basically unarmed. All your back-up is either dead or dying. And those two are having a bit of a crisis and can’t process anything right now.” Sam said, referring to Oliver and Roy. “You’re not leaving here alive.”

“You realize if you kill me, it won’t end this investigation.”

“Actually it will. The Russians were all killed by ARGUS bullets, which ballistics will confirm, and all the ARGUS agents were killed by the Russians. You stumbled upon some drug ring, a shootout ensued and bang, everyone’s dead.” Sam said.

“Goodbye, Amanda. Tell Petrov I say ‘hello’.” Felicity said before she shot Waller right between the eyes. “That was for Cassie.”

“Cassie?” Roy said, seemingly out of his stupor.

“Cassandra Petrovich. She was fifteen, and when ARGUS tried to recruit me in 2006, her father was one of their sources. The search wasn’t going well and Waller thought he’d misled her on purpose. She outed him as an informant, the whole family was tortured and killed. I only met her once, she was a smart girl, sweet, she had her whole life ahead of her.” Felicity answered.

“Why did you send Lyla home?” Roy asked. “I think I know why but-‘

“She’s a friend, she’s John’s girlfriend. She’s the only one I heard say she wanted to let the case go. But more than that, more than any of that, she’s a mother, she’s Sara’s mother. And when I had to watch my mother’s slow, agonizing death, I promised I wasn’t gonna be the reason someone else lost their mother.” Felicity answered. She turned and began collecting her things.

“I’m sorry.” Roy said. “We didn’t have your back on this one.”

“Well, you had it a little bit. Everyone else, not at all.” Felicity said. “Oh, and since its probably the only reason you came, Laurel’s at Starling General, Oliver. Check the psych ward first.”

“It’s not the only reason I- psych ward? She’s not crazy.”

“Debatable.” Sam said. “She went a little cuckoo at the hospital. They think she’s having some kind of nervous breakdown. They also found a whole mess of drugs in her system.”

Oliver shook his head. “I’m not here for her. I came for you.”

“And I told you, I didn’t want you here. I’m also pretty sure you came in some half-baked attempt to try and stop me from doing something you think I’ll regret.” She said in a calm voice. “I’d leave this building soon.”

* * *

 

**League Hideout**

Sara was muttering to herself as she removed her weapons. She was angry. Angry laurel was in the psych ward, angry she lost to Felicity, angry she fought Felicity at all. Laurel was a grown-up, why had Sara gotten in the middle of her turf war, or whatever it was, with Felicity?

Sara was pulled out of her stupor when Nyssa entered the room. “Beloved, I- what happened to your head?” up until now, Sara had forgotten about the small cut on her forehead she’d sustained during her fight with Felicity.

“I fought Felicity and lost.”

“Of course you lost. Do you have any idea how stupid that was? She could’ve killed you.”

“How did you know I’d lose?”

Nyssa released a humorless laugh. “Because you, Oliver Queen, his allies, you all are still looking at the situation wrong.” She said. “You believe she’s like you and Oliver. You think Anastasia is a cover she’s forced to use. Anastasia Rostova isn’t a mask, Felicity Smoak is. She’s not a good person forced to become a killer, she’s a killer who chose to become a good person. There’s no innocent person trapped in there somewhere.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind next time.”

“Next time, even if she doesn’t kill you, you will still die.” Nyssa said gravely.

“Why?”

“Al Shabh didn’t just survive any sword in Shanghai. She survived my father’s sword. She is now Heir to the Demon and fated to become the next Ra’s al Ghul.” Nyssa answered. “Attempting to harm her over hurt feelings will surely end with your life being forfeit.”

* * *

 

**Felicity’s House**

“I will admit, that display was impressive.” A voice said from behind Felicity as she entered her kitchen. “Rather Demon Head-like if I am being honest.”

“Well, you certainly are the authority on that.” Felicity told Ra’s.

“I trust all your affairs have been concluded.” Ra’s knew the longer he waited to start training Felicity to become Ra’s al Ghul, the more likely she’d try to back out or run.

“There’s one more thing I need to deal with. It’ll be done by this time tomorrow and then Felicity Smoak can vanish off the face of the earth.” The blonde needed to quit, tell Team Arrow a few things and get the hell out of dodge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting towards the end, folks.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waller and the Russians have been dealt with, and now Felicity needs to move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, this is the last chapter.  
> Also, yay me. I actually managed to finish a story for once.

**Felicity’s House**

As soon as Ra’s left her house, Felicity got to work. She knew someone, whether it was Team Arrow or the League, would clear out her house once she disappeared, so she wasn’t worried about most of her stuff. She wasn’t overly attached to possessions, she couldn’t afford to being on the run for several years. There were only three things she wouldn’t leave behind. The one photo she had of her mother, her computer that had all of her aliases and safehouse locations on it and last but not least, the copy of _The Hobbit_ she’d bought three days after escaping. She’d gotten it on a whim, the cover art drew her in and she wondered what the story was about. It was the first thing she got for herself that wasn’t an essential. It was the first thing that made her feel like a person, and not a weapon. It was a reminder of how far she’d come.

Sam walked in right as Felicity was done packing her one bag. “You’re running.”

“There’s something I haven’t told you.” She said.

* * *

 

**Foundry**

The blonde walked into the foundry and found it empty. That wasn’t surprising, since it was still day time and no one showed up before five at the earliest. She decided to use her time to make Felicity Smoak disappear electronically.

 First, she shut down all her social media. Next, removed herself from as many government databases as possible. Post office, DMV, phone book, social security, even the Red Cross donor list. She’d spent the last several days quietly moving her bank balance out of the United States. Her house wasn’t in her name and her car was a rental, again under a different name. She set up programs to scrub every trace of her out of existence. By the time the others arrived, the only proof Felicity Smoak ever existed would be their memories.

Right on time, at ten after five, the door to the foundry opened and she could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. She turned and saw it was Oliver. Neither spoke for several moments and eventually she went back to her screens and he went to beat up a training dummy. After half an hour, he spoke up.

“What’re you doing?”

“Nothing, just running some searches. You know there are only 12,409 people in Starling with the last name ‘Smith’? I thought there’d be more.” _Yes, babble. Make him think everything’s back to normal. No point in tipping him off that you’re about to leave._

“Felicity? I’m sorry.”

“For what?” She was still focused on the screen.

“Everything.”

“Just saying ‘everything’ isn’t good enough. It means you don’t know what you’re apologizing for, but you know you’re supposed to. it’s an empty platitude. Be more specific or don’t bother.”

“Fine. I’m sorry for treating you like you’re helpless. I’m sorry I reacted badly when you told me about your past. I’m sorry about Laurel. I’m sorry I don’t like the fact that you’re fine killing people.”

“No, you aren’t. I’m not fine killing people, I just am willing to do it. I tried everything I could to keep Waller and the Russians as far from here as possible. I tried as hard as I could to keep my ghosts out of Starling. But sometimes, there isn’t another way, Oliver. You saw that with the Count. Yet, its fine when you do it, but when it’s me, it’s going too far. It’s the hypocrisy more than anything that I can’t take. I trusted you for years to make the right call, yet you couldn’t trust me once.” She yelled. “And before you argue, I’d like to point some things out. I saved Sara from dying. I saved Thea from Malcolm. I even stopped Laurel from getting kidnapped and interrogated by Russian secret agents. My way did a lot more good than yours did in this instance.”

“Ok. Let’s take it down a notch.” Digg said from nearby. Felicity hadn’t noticed he and Roy were there. “We might not be happy about what happened but, we can’t change the past and-“

“I’m leaving.” Felicity said suddenly. “For good.”

“You’re quitting the team?” Oliver asked.

“No, I mean I’m leaving Starling City. There’s nothing left for me here anyway.”

“So, that’s it? Now that you beat Waller, you just take off?”

“My leaving has nothing to do with Waller or ARGUS or the Russians. It has to do with you two. You don’t trust me, you don’t want me around, so I’m leaving.” She then turned to Roy. “You, I’ll miss. Anyway, by now all trace of me is gone, so it’ll be like I never existed. Have a nice life.” She moved to leave, but Oliver grabbed her arm.

“I can’t just let you leave.”

“Why would I need your permission?” she shot back. She was getting angrier by the second. “What makes you think you ‘let’ me do anything?”

“No, we need to talk about this. I know you’re angry but-“

Oliver was cut off when Felicity tore his hand off of her arm. “I’m not angry Oliver. I’m hurt and insulted and livid. Angry does not cover it.” she dropped his hand and started to walk away.

“You still can’t leave.”

Felicity swung. Oliver blocked, but she used it as a distraction to aim a kick at his ribs. He hunched over. She took another swing, this one hit him on the right side of the face. Digg tried to get involved, but soon found himself nursing a broken hand. Felicity turned back to Oliver. By now, he’d gotten back up.

“I don’t want to fight you, but I will if I have to.” he said, trying to sound threatening.

“The last person who said that to me, I shot in the head.” Felicity told him. “I’m leaving, you can’t stop me. Let it go.”

Oliver started to walk away. Felicity took that as a defeat and turned to leave. A few seconds later, she felt something hit her in the back. She turned and saw one of the tranq arrows sticking out of her shoulder.

“What the actual fuck?” she yelled. “You shot me? Seriously?” She stormed towards him as she yelled. Oliver slowly got more and more terrified. “Yeah, I’ve built up an immunity to most tranquilizers, so that wasn’t gonna work.”

“Felicity, I-“

She punched him in the face. He staggered back. She hit him again, he fell onto his knees. She then kneed him in the face, knocking him out. Then, she turned to Roy.

“When he wakes up, tell him I’m gone. And I said not to look for me.”

* * *

 

**Starling City Port**

Felicity walked in silence through the Starling City port until she reached the terminal Ra’s had told her to meet him at. She turned the corner to find a dozen or so assassins standing there waiting.

“And here I was concerned I would need to track you down.” Ra’s said in a bored voice.

“I may be a killer and a liar, but I keep my promises. I said I’d be ready to leave today, I’m ready to leave today.”

Deep down, very deep down in fact, Felicity was grateful this was happening. Ra’s and the League weren’t the best people on the planet, but she could at least be herself with them. They weren’t hypocrites, so unlike other people she could name, they didn’t judge Anastasia Rostova for what she was made into. She knew Felicity Smoak couldn’t last forever, but at least she got a better-than-average send-off.

“Very well. Shall we depart?”

Felicity turned to board the boat before she stopped and froze. “Wait. Give me five minutes?”

“For what purpose?”

“Someone was supposed to meet me here.” She said sadly. She’d told Sam everything last night. What really happened in Shanghai, Ra’s ‘offer’ and that she was leaving. She hoped he’d come to at least say goodbye.

“If the someone you mention is Oliver Queen, I would not get my hopes up.” Ra’s told her. “If it is your friend from Russia, I would turn to my left about 75 degrees.”

Felicity furrowed her brow, but turned anyway. She saw Sam standing there with a grin on his face and a duffel bag in his hand.

“What are you-?”

“After your discussion with him last night, Mr. Sokolov requested an audience with me.” Ra’s told her. “He has chosen to join the League, claiming he was unwilling for you to leave him behind again.”

“Are you sure about this?” Felicity asked Sam.

“Yes.” It was odd how he could put so much conviction into a three-letter word.

“Well, then. What are we waiting for?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Comments?  
> Should I do a sequel?


	32. Sequel

After a lot of feedback, and encouragement from all of you, I've decided to write a sequel. 

Chapter One will be posted later this week. The title is 'The Future is Closer than You Think'


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